Google said its Street View automobile take up their photography of Gallic streets on Friday , annoying the French data protective covering authority , which launched an probe into the privacy implications of the service earlier this year .
France ’s National Commission on Computing and Liberty ( CNIL ) say it was “ premature ” for Google to re-start its collection of street images , throw that its investigation of those activeness is still not everlasting .
After Google admitted on May 14 that itsStreet View cars had collected not just photos but also communications data from unencrypted Wi - Fi networksas they drove around , CNIL order Google to barricade collecting such data without the knowledge of those concerned . The CNIL tell it want to make certain Google did not call for such data illegally in future tense , and to provide CNIL with information about the way it collected such data for use in its Street View service . Google gave CNIL access to the data on June 4 .
Google used the Wi - Fi data to meliorate the accuracy of positioning detection in its fluid service : by associating the SSID ( Service Set Identifier ) circulate by a Wi - Fi web with a particular location in its database , it could determine from where Wi - Fi - capable mobile devices were connecting to military service such as Google Maps or Google Latitude .
However , the information collected by Google ’s Street View cars go far beyond the SSID broadcast by the Wi - Fi internet , and admit communications data such as “ e - mail access passwords [ and ] infusion of the content of einsteinium - mail messages,”CNIL saidin mid - June .
Google said it has now removed the Wi - Fi equipment from its vehicles , which will now only collect digital photographs and 3D scans of the construction they pass .
German secrecy regulators are concernedabout more than just the Wi - Fi data . They want German house physician to have a hazard to stop Google publishing images of their domicile , even before those images go online . Google ’s approach in other countries has been to put out first , and remove image if it get a complaint .
South Korean law toohave take an interest in the help , raiding Google ’s offices there in the first place this calendar month as part of an investigating into unauthorized data collection and illegal wiretapping .
While glance over streets around the world is costing Google money and goodwill , the return can be significant : The introduction of Street View imagery typically boosts dealings to the Google Maps service by 20 percent in the areas plow , a caller spokeswoman said .
