France Fine Google For Data Collection
The furore over the privacy scandal raised by Google’s admission that it collected private data via Wi-Fi during its Street View program, has come to a head, with France’s National Committee for Information Technology Freedom issuing the California based search engine giant with a $147,000 fine.
France has led the condemnation of Google’s data collection that it says has intruded on people’s private data space and allowed the collection of personal data such as banking details and home business records. Basically, if your network was unsecured when the Street View car came past your house then there is a good chance that your data may have been compromised.
Google has admitted to unwittingly collecting 600GB of personal information through the W-Fi system. They said that an engineering error allowed the mistake to happen and have said that as soon as they realised that a mistake had been made, they came clean to the authorities.
Even so, Yann Padova, head of the committee, claimed that Google had been opaque in the matter and had been lacking in cooperation when it came to finding out the facts of the situation.
In November, a similar investigation Britain wavered from fining the company, saying instead that they must sign a guarantee preventing similar privacy law violations in the future.
