When it comes to Street View and the collection of sensitive WiFi data, Google is, at least to some degree, safe from serious penalties in New Zealand.  A police investigation has determined that the company didn't violate any laws.

Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff referred the matter to police in June, which seemed to put Google in a precarious position.  Logic dictated that Shroff wouldn't call in law enforcement for no reason, after all.

But fortunately for the search giant, New Zealand police said in a statement today, "An investigation by Police has determined that there is no evidence to suggest a criminal offence has been committed."

Detective Senior Sergeant John van den Heuvel of the Police National Cyber Crime Centre just suggested, "Anyone using Wi-Fi needs to ensure they have appropriate security measures in place.  People should not underestimate the risk that information they broadcast might be accessed by others, either inadvertently or for more sinister purposes."

Now the ball is back in the privacy commissioner's (figurative) court, and she hasn't made clear whether her office will take further action or not.

We'll be sure to report any other noteworthy developments that occur.

Google announced today that it is making public its help documentation for Local Shopping inventory for Google Merchant Center. This is a feature that allows retailers to let consumers know about what they have in stock right from the web. 

"One weekday evening a few weeks before our son was born, my wife commissioned me to find a box of raspberry red leaf tea for the delivery," says Google Product Search business product manager Paul Lee, explaining the usefulness of such a feature.  "I promptly drove to the nearest grocery store, which has an awe-inspiring wall of tea. After diligently scanning the wall and not finding the tea, I began to wonder if it even existed. Was the similarly-labeled raspberry tea the same thing? What about red leaf tea?" 

"Stumped, I pulled out my phone and looked up 'raspberry red leaf tea' on Google," he continues. "Beneath the 'Shopping results,' I saw a red map marker for a nearby Vitamin Shoppe and a link, 'In stock nearby,' next to a picture of Alvita Raspberry Red Leaf Tea. I hopped back in the car, and 15 minutes later had accomplished my mission. Two weeks later, my wife accomplished her much more important mission and we welcomed Benjamin, a healthy and happy baby boy, to our family."

Keep in mind that Google doesn't accept all retailers who apply for listing this information, but there is a form you can fill out to do so. If you aren't accepted, Google will keep you on file for potential future inclusion. 

You'll be asked to submit a complete and accurate data feed, including unique product identifiers. You'll also need to be listed and verified in Google Places.

PeopleBrowsr shared a rather interesting report with us this week, looking at privacy related tweets during the center of this year's Facebook "privacy storm." The firm studied the public's reaction to Facebook's open graph-related announcements that set off the majority of the Facebook privacy controversy back in April.

Are you concerned for your privacy as a Facebook user? Let us know.

The report specifically compares the general public's (or at least the portion that uses Twitter) thoughts about Facebook privacy with the media sensationalism around the story. The firm studied tweets with references to privacy, along with other keywords like Facebook, Open Graph, Zuckerberg, and Google.

"We are the last generation to know privacy as it was," says Brian Solis, Chief Data Analyst for PeopleBrowsr. "As Facebook moves human connections and society into a more public spotlight, people and the press will push back. But this will move things forward collaboratively. Over time I believe the debate will evolve into a series of productive forums and memes that explore the risks of living in public and the rewards for participation."





Some of PeopleBrowsr's findings from the study:

- Prior to the F8 conference on April 24, privacy tweets hovered between 1,000-3,000 references per day, then spiked to 9,000 on the day of F8

- On April 25 (day after the conference), privacy-related tweets fell to 3,500 – then surged to 7,500 when politicians joined the fray. Around May 25, privacy discussions hit the ceiling in this study with 20,000 unique discussions.

- In terms of context, Facebook dominated the landscape for mentions of #privacy

- Conversations followed media reports

"We see that even on the day when privacy took center stage, the media sensationalized the topic. But the public, at least those on Twitter, did not flood the streets with 140 character picket signs. 9,000 tweets does not seem to account for the millions of Twitter users or the 500 million people who have Facebook accounts," says Solis.

That last statement is true on a couple of different levels. For Solis' purpose it does not appear to indicate that the majority of Facebook users were that concerned. However, it is also worth noting that the majority of Facebook users are not necessarily active Twitter users. Facebook has over 500 million people. It's not a flawless argument, and the findings should be taken with a grain of salt like any such study. That said, Twitter is generally viewed as a good indication of public opinion, as trending topics often reflect pop culture and news at large. If there is something significant happening, you can generally find people talking about it on Twitter.

Besides, Facebook's numbers continued to grow. Diaspora (the "Facebook alternative") will be here soon. I'm willing to bet that will have little impact on Facebook's growth as well.

Do you think the privacy discussion around Facebook was overblown? Share your thoughts.