"If they intend to keep that information for 10 years, we just don't know what the ramifications could be," EFA vice-chair, Geordie Guy, told . "We know there's a potential to get an awful lot more information than they said they're getting, and we know there's a lot of uses for it."

As an example of the potential ramifications of this Guy pointed out that, depending on how long Google stores this information, it could be sold to market research companies to trend sales of consumer electronics, or even used internally in conjunction with other Google services, both present and future.

Social networking sites Myspace and Facebook have both attracted criticisms in regard to their use of user information as a commodity and marketing tool.

Guy and APF vice-chair, Dan Svantesson, said in the letter that the potential privacy issue had already been raised with Google by relevant parties in Germany and the UK. The German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection, Peter Schaar, said he was "appalled" upon discovering the allegations, and called upon Google to delete any "unlawfully collect personal data on the wireless network".

"We note that Australian privacy law may be relevant to the conduct of such activities in Australia," the letter reads.