Google received its first ever fine for improperly gathering and storing data for its Street View application on Monday when it was penalized by France's privacy watchdog.
The euro100,000 ($141,300) penalty — the largest ever by French body CNIL — sanctions Google for collecting personal data from Wi-Fi networks — including e-mails, web browsing histories and online banking details — from 2007 to 2010 through its roaming camera-mounted cars and bicycles. The fine is the first against Google over the data-gathering, which more than 30 countries have complained about. At least two other European countries are considering fines, while some others have ruled against penalizing Google.
Google has been targeted by data-protection authorities in the European Union for its Street View program, which lets users click on maps to see photographs of roadsides. The European Commission, the EU’s executive agency, plans more harmonized data protection rules across the 27-nation region.
Google Inc. has apologized and says it will delete the data. "As we have said before, we are profoundly sorry for having mistakenly collected payload data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks," Google's Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer said in an e-mailed statement. "As soon as we realized what had happened, we stopped collecting all Wi-Fi data from our Street View cars and immediately informed the authorities."
The head of CNIL criticized Google for a lack of transparency and cooperation with its investigation, which it launched in 2009. "They were not always willing to cooperate with us, they didn't give us all the information we asked for, like the source code of all devices in the Google cars," said Yann Padova, CNIL's executive director. "They were not always very transparent."
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