Google fined over Street View privacy breach
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 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."
Google has two months to appeal the fine. It hasn't yet decided whether it will, a company spokesman said.
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