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There are several comments below the article which noted that Google had turned over data to external French auditors, who reported finding passwords, emails, and other sensitive information in the WiFi data captured by Google. Personally, I would be more worried by external auditors having access to the data than Google.

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Google having it is the same thing as external auditors having it. They've said as much on several occasions (e.g. "If you don't have anything to hide...").

Wrong. Google has a vested interest in protecting the information (whether or not they internally exploit it for contextual advertising is another issue). External auditors have more incentive to leak the information to increase public outrage at Google.

Google's vested interests are irrelevant. The government can take any or all of their information any time they want to.

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