Monday, April 22, 2013

Germany fines Google for privacy violations...

German authorities said Monday they had fined Google for illegally collecting massive amounts of personal data including emails, passwords and photos while setting up its disputed Street View service.

The data protection office in the northern city of Hamburg said it had slapped the US Internet giant with a €145,000 penalty for privacy violations on what it called a nearly unprecedented scale.

It found that while specially equipped Google vehicles took city snapshots between 2008 and 2010 for its Street View function, which supplements its standard map service, they had also picked up data from unsecured wireless networks.

"Among the information gathered in the drive-bys were significant amounts of personal data of varying quality. For example emails, passwords, photos and chat protocols were collected," the Hamburg authorities said in a statement.

 "In my opinion this case constitutes one of the biggest known data protection violations in history," said the office's chief, Johannes Caspar. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Six European states take aim at Google privacy policy...
  2. Google gaffe: Search giant fails to delete private Street View data...
  3. Google fined $140,000 for gathering and storing data through Street View...
  4. Frenchman sues Google Street View over urination photo...
  5. Google Street View captures Manchester couple engaging in sex act...

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