Google has been severely criticized by European privacy regulators and advocates after it emerged that the search giant had been using wireless networks to gather people’s personal information.

The personal information was gathered by Google’s Street View cars which were meant to collect people’s network names and addresses through WiFi networks.

The matter came to light after German authorities asked to audit the data. The admission has increased concerns over potential privacy breaches.

Google did not declare what information it collected from WiFi networks, but reports suggest personal information could have included e-mails, addresses or websites people were viewing.

Google said that it had no intention to gather the personal information. The cars used for its Street View mapping service were accidentally programmed to gather the personal information.

Speaking on the issue, Alan Eustace from Google said, "The engineering team at Google works hard to earn your trust - and we are acutely aware that we failed badly here."

Germany accused Google of breaching privacy laws.