Google Admits Street View Cars Stole WiFi Data

Is this Google's worst nightmare?

If you listen to conspiracy theories the tech giant is regularly accused of secretly collecting our data for nefarious purposes, something Google has long denied - until now.

In an exposé which is likely to fuel even greater conspiracy theories for years to come, Google has admitted its Street View cars have been collecting information from WiFi networks as they passed by. This includes networks' SSID (WiFi network name), MAC addresses (the unique number given to each device on a WiFi network) and payload data (information sent over the network. Oh dear me. The upside? It only occurred with open (ie non-password protected) WiFi networks and Google promises to was a complete accident.