Bloomberg is reporting that the search giant has been just fined €145,000 (about $189,230) for “one of the biggest” data protection violations by a German regulator. The regulators fined Google for collecting wireless-network data by its cars taking photos of the Street View service. Google’s cars from 2008 to 2010 captured the data, including emails content, passwords, photos and chat protocols.
“In my view, this is one of the biggest data protection rules violations known,” said Hamburg data regulator Johannes Caspar. Google’s “internal control mechanisms must have severely failed.” Caspar said fines for negligent data rule violations are limited to 150,000 euros under German law. The limit should be raised in order to deter unlawful behaviour.
