Google Fined 100,000 Euros By French Privacy Regulator

According to wire service AFP, France’s data privacy regulator has imposed a EUR 100,000 ($142,000) fine to punish Google for collecting private WiFi data via Street View in France. This is the first fine/penalty any country has levied against Google over the WiFi data collection.

When it first occurred, Google acknowledged the data collection but said it was unintentional and pledged to destroy all private information collected. “We screwed up,” Google co-founder Sergey Brin said at the time.

According to the AFP article:

CNIL, the National Commission for Information Freedom, said Google had pledged to erase all the private data, but that it had found “that Google has not refrained from using the data identifying Wi-Fi access points of individuals without their knowledge.”

Google has faced legal actions and potential fines across Europe and elsewhere from alleged privacy violations by Street View photography.

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Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes about the connections between digital and offline commerce. He previously held leadership roles at LSA, The Kelsey Group and TechTV. Follow him Twitter or find him on LinkedIn.