The US Federal Trade Commission has officially closed its investigation (PDF) into Google for collecting data from unsecured wireless networks. The search company announced in May that its Street View vehicles inadvertently collected information from unencrypted Wi-Fi connections, including passwords and entire emails. Google recently apologized for the mistake in a blog post and outlined the changes it's made to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
Google has appointed a director of privacy to oversee the company's products and practices. It's also "enhancing" privacy training for engineers, product managers and its legal team, focusing on "the responsible collection, use and handling of data." Additionally, Google employees will undertake an "information security awareness program" starting this December. The company will also require engineering project leaders to maintain a privacy design document to record how user data is handled. That document will be reviewed regularly by manager as well as an independent audit team.