Google ^[1] is tweaking a practice that has drawn the ire of wi-fi providers, consumers, and international governments: It will now let wi-fi providers opt out of providing location data to Google services. The plan applies worldwide. The company has received much criticism both in the U.S. and overseas for what some call “aggressive” data gathering.

The move is a smart policy and PR one, says ReadWriteWeb’s Jon Mitchell. Google’s ubiquitous Street View cars caused an uproar by doing some deep-level data scraping and collecting private wi-fi data. Much of the criticism has come from Germany, where Google eventually discontinued data collection via Street View vehicles; and a U.S. judge ruled ^[2] recently that the Street View cars could have violated wiretapping laws.

Read more at ReadWriteWeb ^[3].