Google agrees to Wi-Fi opt out.

• Position: PRIVACY - Brief article

Google has agreed to allow people worldwide to keep the names and locations of their home or business Wi-Fi routers out of its database.

According to The New York Times, the decision resulted from pressure from the Netherlands. The Times said Google was found to have illegally collected information from 3.6 million routers in the Netherlands between March 2008 and May 2010 as it compiled its Street View mapping service.

Under the agreement announced by Google and the Dutch Data Protection Agency, owners of Wi-Fi routers can add "_nomap" to the end of a router's name to tell Google that they do not want its information included, The Times reported.

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The Dutch agency has threatened Google with a $1.4 million fine for its illegal data collection if it does not keep its promise to remove the data after a router owner opts out using the new procedure.

The Dutch Data Protection Authority said it will independently verify whether Google fulfills the agreement.

According to The Times, Google said it was using the information to help pinpoint the location of cell phones and other mobile...