Google gets another penalty for violating privacy laws

Belgium wants a settlement with Google. The Belgium Justice department is involved in a conflict with Google about violation of privacy laws. During the recordings  for Google Streetview the company intercepted data of Wifi-routers. The department of Justice is willing to settle the case. The internet company must pay a penalty of € 150.000.

This is not the first time Google violated privacy laws when they were recording for Google Streetview. In France they also had to pay a penalty for intercepting personal data with their Streetview-cars. In other countries in Europe the authorities are researching if Google violated privacy laws.

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (Dutch DPA) already pointed out to Google that they were doing something wrong. Google didn’t agree. They said that routerdata weren’t the same as personal data. But the Dutch DPA said that the combination of routerdata and the location of the router could be considered personal data.

Google should meet four conditions to avoid a penalty of € 1 million:
1.    The processing of the data that was intercepted by Google must be known by the Dutch DPA.
2.    Google should give people the opportunity to prevent their personal data from being used.
3.    Routerowners should know that data is being intercepted.
4.    Intercepted network names of routers must be erased.
Google hasn’t had to pay the penalty jet.

Source: nu.nl

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By: Karen Groen