Google admits to WiFi sniffing!!!

Is it just me, or aren't the google streetview cars supposed to take pictures of peoples houses and not personal WiFi data from the residents. Listening to Buzz Out Loud episode 1336, I found out that Google got over 600 gigs of WiFi data from their street cars. Google says that it was a the fault of one of their WiFi programs in the cars that was not supposed to be included in the car in the first place. At first, they said that it was a bunch of bits and pieces of data and they were just going to delete it. After further review, it seems they collected over 600 phone numbers and over 700 email headers and passwords. On top of that, they now say they are not going to delete the data because of ongoing investigations in the UK and Canada. Doesn't Google already collect tons of data through cookies and such and don't they have access to millions of Gmail accounts without needing to use streetview cars to get it. I don't believe Google to be evil and wanting to steal all this information to use against us. But this kind of mishap does lead me to believe them as stupid, and isn't stupid with power just as bad as evil?