THE Singapore authorities have begun discussions with Google over its controversial collection of personal information for its Street View service, which was launched here recently, in the light of concerns overseas over privacy issues.

It emerged recently that in the course of collecting photos for its service, which allows users to access 3-D views of roads and buildings worldwide, Google's fleet of camera-equipped cars and bicycles had also collected data from unencrypted wireless networks.

Google has said the data was collected inadvertently, and could include a record of websites that a user has accessed or the contents of e-mail.

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