This article talks about how France has fined Google due to the fact that Google collected personal data from Wi-Fi networks while they were going through France with their Street View cameras. What happened was that when Google went through France with their Street View technology the technology collected data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, which means that Google has gathered information from many French Citizens including things like: e-mails, web browsing histories, online banking details, and even passwords. This incident, which people have been calling "Wi-Spy," was caused by an engineer's careless error as well as a lack of controls to ensure that necessary procedures to protect privacy were followed. Google has two months to appeal the fine, but Google has said that they will do their best to delete all of the information that they collected "by accident".I think that it isn't right that Google has collected personal information from people without their consent because, in a way, it's stealing. Google isn't literally stealing the information from people, but they are copying it and storing it. I think that this situation can be compared to someone cheating on a test. Google is, in a way, sneaking around the classroom and looking at everyones answers. Although Google has claimed that it was a mistake, there is no way of being sure. It's possible that Google collected peoples e-mail addresses to send them messages advertising Google products such as Android phones. This is just an example of something that Google could do with the information that they have gathered but there are endless possibilities. Maybe Google truly gathered all of that data by accident.
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