Google, the world's largest Internet search engine, did not specify what kind of data it collected, but it is suspected that email content and passwords for many users, as well as general Web surfing activity, could easily have been caught in Google's dragnet.

Google said the collection of data was a simple mistake resulting from a piece of computer code that was accidentally included from an experimental project using Google's Street View cars which are well known for crisscrossing the globe and taking panoramic pictures of the city streets, which the company displays in its Maps product.

Collecting the WiFi data was unrelated to the Google Maps project, and was done so that Google could collect data on WiFi hotspots that can be used to provide separate location-based services.

"As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the data on our network, which we then disconnected to make it inaccessible," Google's Eustace said.

The company said on Friday that it is currently in touch with regulators in several countries, including the United States, Germany, France, Brazil and Hong Kong, about how to dispose of the data, which they say they never used.

Ref: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64D60E20100514