France fines Google for Street View privacy breach

PARIS: France's privacy watchdog has handed down its largest fine ever against Google for improperly gathering and storing potentially sensitive data from Wi-Fi networks for its Street View application.

Monday's €100,000 ($141,300) fine sanctions Google for collecting personal data _ including e-mails, web browsing histories and online banking details _ from 2007 to 2010 through its roaming camera-mounted cars.

The fine by privacy watchdog CNIL is the first against Google over the data-gathering, which 30 countries have complained about.

At least two other European countries are considering fines, while some others have ruled against penalizing Google. Google Inc. has apologized and says it will delete the data.