Google has been fined 100,000 euros (US$141,000) by the French National Commission on Computing and Liberty (CNIL), for recording personal data while taking photos for its Street View mapping service.
From 2007 to 2010, Google vehicles traveled across Europe taking panoramic photographs for Google Street View. During the process, the vehicles recorded data including IDs, passwords, login details, and sensitive e-mail exchanges from Wi-Fi networks, according to CNIL.
CNIL launched an investigation late in 2009 into the matter and discovered that Google had “saved passwords for access to mailboxes” without the knowledge of users and “posted excerpts of content of electronic messages,” according to an earlier report by The Epoch Times.
CNIL said that Google’s unwillingness to cooperate and hand over information about the program that collected the data when asked, led to the fine.
On March 17, CNIL said that Google had “not refrained from using data to identify the Wi-Fi access points of individuals without their knowledge,” in a press release.
Google has apologized for collecting the data and called it a mistake.
Google gathered data for Street View in over 30 countries and is now facing investigation in countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Australia, and North America. The company has two months to appeal the fine in France, according to BBC.
From 2007 to 2010, Google vehicles traveled across Europe taking panoramic photographs for Google Street View. During the process, the vehicles recorded data including IDs, passwords, login details, and sensitive e-mail exchanges from Wi-Fi networks, according to CNIL.
CNIL launched an investigation late in 2009 into the matter and discovered that Google had “saved passwords for access to mailboxes” without the knowledge of users and “posted excerpts of content of electronic messages,” according to an earlier report by The Epoch Times.
CNIL said that Google’s unwillingness to cooperate and hand over information about the program that collected the data when asked, led to the fine.
On March 17, CNIL said that Google had “not refrained from using data to identify the Wi-Fi access points of individuals without their knowledge,” in a press release.
Google has apologized for collecting the data and called it a mistake.
Google gathered data for Street View in over 30 countries and is now facing investigation in countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Australia, and North America. The company has two months to appeal the fine in France, according to BBC.
