“The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has served Google Inc with an enforcement notice over the collection of payload data by Google’s Street View cars in the UK.

Stephen Eckersley, ICO Head of Enforcement, said:

“Today’s enforcement notice strengthens the action already taken by our office, placing a legal requirement on Google to delete the remaining payload data identified last year within the next 35 days and immediately inform the ICO if any further disks are found. Failure to abide by the notice will be considered as contempt of court, which is a criminal offence.”

The ICO’s decision follows the reopening of its investigation into the Google Street View project in April last year. The decision followed the publication of a report by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which raised concerns around the actions of the engineer who developed the software previously used by the cars, and his managers.”