Google to hand over European Wi-Fi data to regulators

Google has relaxed its opposition to European regulators and will hand over the open wireless network data it collected from its Street View cars over the past three years.

Google's chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, told The Financial Times the company would share the data collected with regulators in Germany, Spain, France and Italy. It is suspected the data contained personal information including e-mails and bank account numbers.

Last week Google said in a statement that there was legal challenges they had to review, before handing over data to German regulators in Hamburg. "We are continuing to discuss the appropriate legal and logistical process for making the data available." These issues would appear to be resolved with Google's recent decision.