Brazil has called for an explanation from internet giant Google over allegations it gathered data on Brazilians through Street View. Following reports of the program being used to spy on EU citizens, Brazil has demanded data on its activities.
The Brazilian authorities have given Google until Saturday to
divulge data on its activities in Brazil or face fines of
US$43,000 a day, up to a maximum of $450,000.
Google Street View allows web users to zoom into Google Maps and
look at locations on street level. In order to build the Street
View images, Google sent cars equipped with cameras to take
360-degree photos of streets and roads around the world.
Currently around 3,000 cities in about 39 countries can be viewed
on Street Maps.
The Brazilian Institute of Computer Policy and Rights opened an
investigation into Google’s Street View program in June of this
year. They believe that “the company collected the secret and
personal data of Brazilians using open Wi-Fi networks as it has
already done in almost 30 countries where there have been similar
allegations.”
“The American company has already been condemned abroad for
intercepting the electronic communications, emails, passwords,
photos and personal data of people residing in the cities where
[Google’s] vehicles were stationed,” said the institute in a
statement.
Google denies the claims that it collected data in Brazil and
released a statement, alleging that the equipment used for data
gathering was removed from the company’s vehicles in May 2010.
Moreover, Google maintains that any information that did happen
to be recorded ‘unintentionally’ is now ‘inaccessible’.
“Google respects personal privacy. All of the issues related
to the collection of data in the Street View project were
addressed in 2010,” said Google in a statement.
Several of Brazil’s main cities are now visible on Google Street
View, including Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
‘One of the biggest data protection violations in history’
Earlier this year Google Street View came under fire in Germany
and the company was forced to pay a fine of 145,000 euros
($195,000) for the illegal collection of data. German data chief
Johannes Caspar described the company’s activities as “one of
the biggest known data protection violations in history.”
"Among the information gathered in the drive-bys were
significant amounts of personal data of varying quality. For
example, emails, passwords, photos and chat protocols were
collected," said a statement from the German authorities.
Google said the violations were not intentional and were down to
the actions of an individual and had nothing to do with company
policy. The information that the internet giant collated has
since been deleted, Germany’s data regulators have assured.
Google has also agreed to pay a fine of $7 million for illegally
gathering data through Street View in the US. A court settlement
obliged Google to delete emails, passwords, and web histories
collected by Street View cars between 2008 and 2010.