In 2010, Google admitted that the Street View cars it uses to collect data for its Google Maps service also collected emails, passwords and more data from open WiFi sources in a number of European countries, including Germany. Today, German regulators placed a fine on Google for this practice.
Bloomberg reports that Google's fine was €145,000 ($189,230) which is a pretty tiny amount compared to what Google earns every quarter. The data from the open WiFi networks was collected by the Street Car vehicles between 2008 and 2010. Google has insisted that it never looked at, or used the data collected by all those WiFi antennas and has since stopped this practice.
Back in 2010, Google said it was going to delete all the Street View WiFi information; but in 2012 it had to admit that accidentally kept "a small portion of payload data" from those vehicles in the UK and other European territories. This new fine from Germany comes as the European Commission is reportedly considering a settlement agreement from Google that relates to its search businesses. While the settlement has yet to be approved, Microsoft and other companies have already stated that Google's antitrust concessions are just not good enough.
Source: Bloomberg | Image via Freefotouk
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