Google lets Wi-Fi owners opt out.

• Position: PRIVACY - Brief article

A voiding a likely fight with European privacy regulators, Google said it will allow the owners of Wi-Fi reuters worldwide to remove their devices from a registry the search engine uses to locate cellphone users.

European regulators had warned Google that the unauthorized use of data sent by Wi-Fi reuters violated European law. According to The New York Times, Google and other organizations use the signals from Wi-Fi routers as navigational beacons to help pinpoint the locations of nearby cellphone users. Google said that the Wi-Fi signals it uses do not identify individuals.

Germany and France, especially, have strongly criticized Geogle's data collection practices, and Geogle has made concessions. In Germany, Geogle gave consumers the option of excluding photos of their properties, apartments, and businesses from its StreetView online map service before it launched last fall, The Times said.

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In May 2011, the privacy advisory panel...