The Italian data protection authority Garante Privacy has confirmed that Google has paid a EUR 1 million fine over complaints that the Street View cars it used to record images in 2010 were not clearly recognisable. "Cars belonging to [Google] roamed Italy's streets without being entirely recognisable as such, therefore not allowing the people present in those places to decide whether to be photographed or not," it said in a statement. Google replied that the fine “relates to an old case that dates back to 2010. We complied with everything the [regulator] required of us at the time." The decision to impose the fine was issued on 18 December but the watchdog did not publish it until 03 April. The amount took into account Google’s "consolidated revenue of over USD 50 billion", it said.
The watchdog has also reported to Italy's judicial authorities that Google inadvertently collected fragments of personal data as part of its mapping research in the country. Google was fined EUR 145,000 last year by a privacy regulator in Germany for accidentally intercepting emails, user names, passwords and other data from Wi-Fi networks while taking photographs for Street View and decided not to contest the fine. Spain’s data protection agency is also said to be looking into the personal data sent over unsecured Wi-Fi systems gathered by Google cars and could face a further fine of up to EUR 600,000.
