Woops, Google’s Street View cars collected email passwords, “sensitive data”

Wait a minute...

"Our ultimate objective is to delete the data consistent with our legal obligations and in consultation with the appropriate authorities."

Delete the data that they are legally required to? If it was accidentally collected in the first place, why keep any of it?

I suspect it's because various governments want it as evidence of some wrong doing.

Sometimes I wonder if Google does things that look bad by accident or if the really meant to do them. And I wonder too, if they realized of this before the French and if Google used this information.

This was already superflous news on slashdot and it is just as useless here.

Collecting sensitive data that were broadcast in the clear. I doubt it, but my sort of hope for a positive development from all this is a big de facto PSA (1) on data security.

EDIT: (1) Public Service Announcement, a U.S. broadcasting component/convention. In return for one's licensed use of the spectrum, one agrees to air a certain amount of "community service" type messages.