"Google
Inc.
co-founder Sergey Brin Wednesday said the Internet giant "screwed up" by
collecting personal data through wireless networks and promised new oversight as
European officials pledged to open investigations of the data collection.
Authorities in Germany, Spain and Italy said Wednesday they were
investigating Google and its Street View service, which uses camera-equipped
vehicles to take street images and mark the location of Wi-Fi networks.
Mr. Brin, speaking the same day at Google's developer conference in San
Francisco, said the company would put "more internal controls in place" to
prevent such data captures in the future, including the hiring of outside help.
"Trust is very important to us," Mr. Brin said. "We're going to do everything
we can to preserve that trust.""