The saga of Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) global invasion of an individual’s privacy continues as the online giant has been forced to pay a fine of 1 million Euros ($1.37 million) to the Italian data regulators. This is once again a result of its Street View cars and this time they are being sanctioned for taking pictures of citizens without their knowledge while the cars were gathering data incognito.
In an official statement the Italian data regulator said that the Street View cars had “roamed the streets without being recognizable” which prevented affected Italians from giving permission or even realizing they were in pictures that were being uploaded onto a global database. The size of the Italian governments displeasure at this latest privacy breach is apparent as the fine given to Google is the largest fine they have received yet. They have also been fined by German, French and Spanish regulators for privacy breaches and more could still be to come.
As a result of the backlash to its Street View cars, Google has taken steps make the cars much more easily identifiable and also to provide advance notice to neighborhoods where the cars will be operating. This will allow people to be aware of what to look out for and the reason and purpose of their presence on their streets.
Street View cars have been under fire not only in the twenty eight nation European Union but also in the US for illegally collecting data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks as the cars are equipped with Wi-Fi antennas to gather any unsecured data being emitted from homes and businesses that Google claims is public rather than private information.
