Summary
A journalist outlet, 404 Media, obtained a copy of an internal Google database that tracks potential privacy and security issues reported by Google employees over six years (from 2013 to 2018). These reports detail various incidents, some affecting a small number of people and others potentially impacting millions.
Here are some of the reported incidents:
- Google Street View accidentally collected and stored license plate numbers.
- A data leak exposed email addresses, geolocation information, and IP addresses of over a million users from Socratic.org, a company acquired by Google. This data may have included information from children.
- A Google speech service mistakenly logged audio data, including an estimated 1,000 children’s voices.
- A glitch in a filter designed to protect children’s voices allowed some to be collected.
- A technical error caused a Google Cloud customer’s data to be moved to a consumer product, potentially compromising data security.
- A feature in Waze Carpool leaked users’ trip information and home addresses.
- A Google employee inappropriately accessed and leaked information from Nintendo’s private YouTube videos.
Google acknowledges the existence of these reports and says each one was reviewed and resolved at the time. They emphasize that these reports are from several years ago.