You know, we are a dumb lot, Google put our private homes on line for all the world to see and we didn't think twice about it, we couldn't wait to go in and have a look. The breach of privacy is so blatently obvious but we totally missed it. Google have admitted they "accidentally" collected private information from unsecured wireless computer networks of private households as their cars zoomed up and down Australian streets. It was described by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy as "the largest privacy breach in history across Western democracies". Complaints from the public have been referred to police.

"This was a mistake," a Google Australia spokesperson said today. "We are talking to the appropriate authorities to answer any questions they have." Google CEO Eric Schmidt admitted on Friday that Google had "screwed up". He said that personal details including banking information may have been been acquired.

Google would shortly be handing over the Wi-Fi information to German, French and Spanish authorities. German data protection authorities, who originally blew the whistle on the data trawl, are considering a criminal investigation.

It just goes to prove how easy it is to get screwed and not even know it.