Google fined in Germany for infringement of privacy by ... - Público.pt

commission data protection in Hamburg announced on Monday that it has decided to fine Google for 145,000 euros, considering that the mapping service of the American company, Street View , there personal data illegally when he made the collection of pictures in the city-states of northern Germany.

Johannes Caspar, head of the commission for data protection in Hamburg, in a statement argues that between 2008 and 2010, Google “not only photographed the streets and houses for your service Google Street View but also accessed the data via wi-fi networks “. A team led by Caspar accuses Google of register negligently through the cars that roamed the streets of Hamburg, information networks wireless Internet connection is not protected, including accounts email , words pass, photos and messages.

The prosecution arose in 2010 in Germany, and about two years later, the Attorney General decided not to proceed with an investigation into the complaint, because he could not find any violation of the country’s penal code. However, the commission data protection in Hamburg decided to file a lawsuit against Google. To achieve substantiate the charges, Johannes Caspar explains that Google were ordered to hard drives containing data collected through Street View in Hamburg. Without this information, Caspar admits it would have been “very difficult to investigate the case.”

have had access to personal data unintentionally, the U.S. company has now been fined half maximum predicted, 300,000 euros, is a tiny amount for Google, as admits Caspar. But for the responsible German, it is still necessary that issues such as those raised in this case are penalized. “We have to realize that Google traveled through several countries in almost all the world, and had the same problems in other countries,” he said, referring to the 49 countries where Street View recorded images.

Data Protection Commission stresses that “Google proved cooperative during the investigation and who publicly admitted his mistake.” The U.S. company admits that collected personal data to the passage of their homes by street cars registered by Street View , but attributed this fact to a “programming error” of their devices.

In Hamburg, German regional other states are considering the possibility of examining whether they were also the target of accusations attributed to Google. It was only in Germany that the Street View got problems. In March, the company announced an amicable settlement with 38 U.S. states in the amount of seven million dollars to avoid prosecution for having collected information circulating on the Internet networks wirelessly. In France, the company was fined 100,000 euros for collecting private data from wireless networks through its mapping program.