Google Failed to Delete Street View Data in France.
PARIS — The French data protection authorities asked Google
on Tuesday to examine private information that cars taking pictures for
its Street View service collected, after Google acknowledged that it
had retained some of the information despite promising to delete it.
The request by the French privacy protection agency, known as the
C.N.I.L., followed a similar one last week from the Information
Commissioner’s Office of Britain.
The C.N.I.L. fined the company €100,000, or $120,000, in March 2011 for
collecting private e-mail messages, computer passwords and other
personal data as its cars took pictures for Google’s Street View
feature, a case that prompted privacy investigations around the world.
“Like its British counterpart, the C.N.I.L. has asked Google to make
available the data in question and to keep it secure while the necessary
investigations are conducted,” the agency said.
In a letter responding to the British information commissioner, Steve
Eckersley, Google’s global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer, said the
continued existence of the data had come to light during a
“comprehensive manual review of our Street View disk inventory.”
The company added in a statement Tuesday: “Google has recently confirmed
that it still has in its possession a portion of payload data collected
by our Street View vehicles. Google apologizes for this error. Google
would now like to delete the remaining data.”
Google has said that it never intended to collect the data, saying it
was the result of mistakes by an engineer working on the Street View
program. The company had promised to destroy the information but last
week acknowledged it had not actually deleted all of it.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission concluded an investigation
into the matter in April, saying Google had “deliberately impeded and
delayed” the inquiry. The agency fined the company $25,000, but
determined that it had not violated data protection laws.
The British information commissioner said in November 2010 that Google’s
collection of the data was a “significant breach” of British privacy
laws, though the company was not fined. In June, the commissioner’s
office opened a new investigation into the matter.
“The I.C.O. is clear that this information should never have been
collected in the first place and the company’s failure to secure its
deletion as promised is cause for concern,” the office said in a
statement.