Google was fined €145,000 ($189,000) on Monday for illegally collecting personal data in Germany for its Street View mapping service.
The incident occurred in the town of Hamburg, Germany. Authorities in Hamburg say Google was able to gather data from residents' Wi-Fi networks through its Street View cars during a mapping project between 2008 and 2010. This information contained user email addresses, passwords, chats and even their browsing history. Google has been ordered to delete the personal information.
At the time of the incident, Google admitted its cars had accidentally collected the data. The tech giant later confirmed in May 2010 that the data contained personal information about Hamburg residents.
The breach was first uncovered by the data protection supervisor in the German city-state of Hamburg, Johannes Caspar. The fine levied on Google is very close to the €150,000 maximum allowed in Germany for such incidents.
Similar charges were brought against Google by several countries in the European Union. The National Commission on Computing and Liberty in France fined Google €100,000 in 2011. The Street View mapping cars drove through 49 countries and more than five million miles of road in Europe.
"We work hard to get privacy right at Google. But in this case we didn't, which is why we quickly tightened up our systems to address the issue. The project leaders never wanted this data, and didn't use it or even look at it. We cooperated fully with the Hamburg DPA throughout its investigation," Google said in a statement.
Google did make some changes after the breach was uncovered in 2010. The company appointed a director of privacy and put in a training program on how to deal with sensitive information. It also set up an internal review system.
Google says it is not planning to appeal the fine.
