French watchdog fines Google for privacy breach

Even as it enjoys top rankings in Brand Finance's list of the world's most valuable brand (See: Google tops Global 500 brand ranking as Coke tumbles 13 places),  Google's privacy problems mounted as French regulators fined the company yesterday for violating data protection laws and accused it of continuing to flout the rules even though it acknowledged mistakes in collecting data for an online mapping service.

Google has been fined €100,000 by the French data protection agency for its collection of online data, including e-mail exchanges and passwords, as it mapped urban landscapes for its Street View service.

The privacy watchdog agency said Google had been insufficiently forthcoming about privacy violations involving its Street View service, which enhances internet maps with pictures. French officials also said that Google continued to break privacy rules in operating a mobile app called Latitude, which lets users broadcast their location and pinpoint the whereabouts of friends.

Google has admitted, and apologised for, gathering e-mail, computer passwords and other information from private wi-fi networks without the owners' knowledge as camera-equipped Street View cars roamed the world's streets.

But the French authority said that Google had steadfastly refused to turn over the full source code for software used in gathering the Street View data. And the privacy watchdog said users of Latitude were not informed that Google tracked their movements to enhance its database of wi-fi information.

''When they use Latitude, they become a Google agent,'' said Yann Padova, secretary general of the privacy agency, the National Commission for Information Technology and Freedoms.