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(Image source: CNET)
BY BRIAN BONDUS
German data regulators have fined Google $190,000 for illegally collecting wireless-network
data while its cars were taking photos for its Street View service.
Google collected fragments of emails, pictures and passwords from open wifi networks between
2008 and 2010. The BBC reports a single employee is responsible for the violation and it was
not authorized by the company.
A German data regulator tells the Los Angeles Times this privacy breach was one of the “biggest
ever” and called the punishment, “totally inadequate.”
$190,000 was just shy of the largest amount Germany could have fined the tech giant under
German law. That only accounts for roughly .002 percent of Google’s $10.7 billion in
net profit from last year.
This is causing the EU to draft new data protection and privacy laws. Under the new proposed laws,
the EU could fine tech companies up to 2 percent of their annual turnover. With that new law,
the EU could have fined Google up to $1 billion.
But those new laws are not expected to be passed until next year at the earliest. Google
violated privacy laws in 49 countries while taking photos for its Street View.
Google settled out of court in the U.S. with 38 states for $7 million. A writer for ZDNet
jokes Google makes that much in about two hours.