intercepted around 600GB of data in 30 countries

Eric Schmidt, chief executive, said the world’s largest internet company would hand over information initially to the German, French and Spanish data protection authorities. Germany is considering a criminal investigation into the practice. Google faced a stand-off with Hamburg privacy authorities last week over whether it would be legal to hand over the rogue data. It now appears willing to reach a compromise.

The company will also publish the results of an external audit into the practice, in which cars photographing streets for Google’s Street View service ended up also collecting snippets of personal information from unsecured WiFi networks.

Mr Schmidt admitted he could not rule out the possibility that personal data such as bank account details were among the data collected.

“We screwed up. Let’s be very clear about that,” Mr Schmidt said. “If you are honest about your mistakes it is the best defence for it not happening again.”

Mr Schmidt also said the company would conduct an internal review into all its privacy practices, checking all of the codes related to collecting data. It will reveal the results of this within the next month.

There is also an internal investigation being conducted against the male software engineer responsible for the rogue code, which was in “clear violation” of Google’s rules.

Mr Schmidt believes transparency will help it regain user trust. However, he was adamant that the company culture, which allows engineers freedom to create new products and services, would not change.