Users can choose to delete data after a set period of time, or pass it on to specific people.

BBC: Press conference in New York

In addition to agreeing to delete the data, Google signed a commitment to improve data handling, the ICO said.

CNN: Google to delete inadvertent Street View data

The failure to comply with a promise to delete all the data was notified to Britain's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which said the fact that the data still existed appeared to breach an undertaking signed by Google in November 2010.

MSN: Google admits it did not delete Street View data

In a talk at the Black Hat security conference in Barcelona Thursday, Greek researcher Thanassis Giannetsos plans to present a new software tool that he and two colleagues have written that they say would allow a malicious hacker to penetrate a sensor network and change or delete data at will.

FORBES: Researcher Throws A Wrench In IBM And HP's Sensor Networks

The bug allows malicious software to reset a Android to its factory default settings and permanently delete any data on it.

FORBES: Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down

Awareness Technologies, which offers a program called Laptop Cop, tracks exactly what a person in possession of a laptop is doing and allows customers to retrieve and delete data from the device remotely.

FORBES: Technology

The defense, meanwhile, has countered with an argument that the aforementioned court order wasn't a valid warrant, because it allowed the feds to delete all collected data, in lieu of submitting them to the court.

ENGADGET: DoJ: Stingray cellphone tracking device falls under Fourth Amendment, but don't ask about it