<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<h1 id="article_headline">Google fined $25 000 for Street View data
collection</h1>
<div id="article_byline"><strong>CHARLES ARTHUR </strong> LONDON,
UNITED KINGDOM - Apr 17 2012 07:50</div>
<br>
<div id="storycontainer"> <br>
<span class="article_lead">Google has been fined $25 000 for
impeding a US investigation into its collection of wireless
network data for its Street View project, which allows users to
see street level images when they map a location.</span> <br>
<br>
<span class="article_body">
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) imposed the fine
late on Friday, saying Google had collected personal information
without permission and had then deliberately not cooperated with
the FCC's investigation.<br>
<br>
The company collected the data between 2007 and 2010, when a car
driving around various locations in the US and, later, Europe,
took photos of locations from public places -- but also
collected information from unprotected wifi networks, including
the location, name and in some cases the content -- including
emails.<br>
<br>
The FCC's investigation was left unresolved, according to the <em>New
York Times</em>, because one key participant -- the Google
engineer in charge of the project -- cited Fifth Amendment
rights and declined to talk to it. The US Constitution's Fifth
Amendment protects the right to silence of someone accused by
the government of a crime.<br>
<br>
"Google refused to identify any employees or produce any emails.
The company could not supply compliant declarations without
identifying employees it preferred not to identify," said an FCC
order dated April 13. "Misconduct of this nature threatens to
compromise the commission's ability to effectively investigate
possible violations of the Communications Act and the
commission's rules."<br>
<br>
<strong>Error</strong><br>
Google said at the time that the collection of data from the
networks was an error and suggested it was down to an error by
those in charge of the information collection. But according to
the <em>New York Times</em>, the engineer says that others
further up at Google must have known of what was happening.<br>
<br>
The discovery of the data collection caused a storm when it was
revealed in 2010. European data protection agencies reacted in
different ways, with the Irish and UK commissioners suggesting
Google should destroy the data without penalty, while in Germany
they said they would need to examine it to determine whether any
crime had been committed.<br>
<br>
In the US, the FCC tried to make a similar determination, as did
the consumer-focused Federal Trade Commission. The FTC closed
its inquiry, while the FCC considered whether there had been a
breach of the US Communications Act's clauses on wiretapping.<br>
<br>
In the end it determined that it had not, because there was no
precedent for applying it to wifi communications.<br>
<br>
<div class="articlecontinues"><img
src="cid:part1.03090404.02040406@gmail.com"> CONTINUES BELOW
<img src="cid:part1.03090404.02040406@gmail.com"></div>
<center>
<div style="width:300px; height:250px;">
<div id="dclkAdsDivID_2527"><iframe marginwidth="0"
marginheight="0" style="border: 0pt none;"
src="about:blank" name="dclkAdsFrameName_2527"
id="dclkAdsFrameID_2527" height="250" scrolling="no"
width="300"></iframe></div>
</div>
</center>
<br>
<br>
Google said in a statement that it had turned over information
to the agency and challenged the finding that it was
uncooperative. "As the FCC notes in their report, we provided
all the materials the regulators felt they needed to conclude
their investigation and we were not found to have violated any
laws," the company said in a statement. "We disagree with the
FCC's characterisation of our cooperation in their investigation
and will be filing a response."<br>
<br>
Between May 2007 and May 2010, Google collected data from wifi
networks throughout the US and across the world as part of its
Street View project, which gives users of Google Map and Google
Earth the ability to view street-level images of structures and
land adjacent to roads and highways.<br>
<br>
But Google also collected passwords, internet usage history and
other sensitive personal data that was not needed for its
location database project, the FCC said.<br>
<br>
Google publicly acknowledged in May 2010 that it had collected
the so-called "payload data". -- © Guardian News and Media 2012<br>
<br>
<br>
</span> </div>
</body>
</html>