Google fined $190,000 in Germany for illegal WiFi snooping with Street View cars

Fine imposed upon Google

Ruling in the proceedings pursuant to Wifi scanning is legally binding

The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information has imposed a fine of 145,000 Euros upon Google Inc. due to illegal recording of Wifi networks.

From 2008 till 2010 Google not only took photographs of streets and houses for its service Google Street View, but also at the same time captured wireless networks within range of the vehicles used for that purpose. As was admitted by Google in response to an inquiry from the Commissioner for Data Protection, content data of unencrypted Wifi connections had also been recorded in the course of this activity.

This was confirmed by the evaluation of the copies of the data provided by Google for the purpose of investigating the issue. Among the information captured in passing were also large quantities of personal data of different quality: for example, e-mails, passwords, photos and chat protocols.

After the facts of the case had been revealed in the year 2010, Hamburg's Department of Public Prosecutions initiated preliminary investigations, which were discontinued in November 2012. The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information thereupon took up the matter once again in the context of regulatory offence proceedings.

These proceedings have now been brought to a conclusion with the legally binding decision that Google Inc. had, negligently and without authorisation, captured and stored personal data. At the same time as being notified of the fine, Google was also instructed to delete completely the illegally captured data. The deletion of the data has been confirmed to the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

"In my estimation this is one of the most serious cases of violation of data protection regulations that have come to light so far. Google did cooperate in the clarification thereof and publicly admitted having behaved incorrectly. It had never been the intention to store personal data, Google said. But the fact that this nevertheless happened over such a long period of time and to the wide extent established by us allows only one conclusion: that the company internal control mechanisms failed seriously," so says Johannes Caspar, the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

Cases like this make it clear that the sanctions provided for by the Federal Data Protection Act are totally inadequate for the punishment of such serious breaches of data protection. For multinational companies, fines of up to 150,000 Euros for negligent and of up to 300,000 Euros for intentional breaches are unlikely, as a general rule, to have a deterring effect. Caspar: "As long as violations of data protection laws are punishable by discount rates, the enforcement of data protection laws in a digital world with its high potential for abuse will be all but impossible. The regulation currently being discussed in the context of the future European General Data Protection Regulation, whereby a maximum fine of 2% of a company's annual turnover is provided for, would, on the other hand, enable violations of data protection laws to be punished in a manner that would be felt economically."

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By: Unknown On 11:24 PM

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HTC One officially hits Germany, UK and Taiwan next week, other regions before the end of April

There's been an uncertainty hovering over just when the HTC One would make its formal debut, between delays in many areas and a trickle of availability in others. At least in theory, those doubts have been resolved: HTC now says that Germany, the UK and Taiwan will have an official One launch next week. Europe, North America and large swaths of Asia-Pacific will get their own units before the end of April. The company hasn't been more specific about carrier deployments, but we're sure that HTC is happy just to beat a key competitor to store shelves. Read the company's full statement after the break.

"HTC has seen unprecedented demand for and interest in the new HTC One, and the care taken to design and build it is evidenced in early reviews. The new HTC One will roll out in the UK, Germany and Taiwan next week and across Europe, North America and most of Asia-Pacific before the end of April. We appreciate our customers' patience, and believe that once they have the phone in their hands they will agree that it has been worth the wait."

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By: Unknown On 2:15 PM

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Samsung's Galaxy S3 extended battery to become available Jan. 5, in Germany at least

Before the holidays, an OEM extended battery kit surfaced for the Samsung Galaxy S3, initially going on pre-order at a British retailer. While that same retailer is still taking pre-orders for the item without an expected shipping date, Amazon Germany has gone one better. 

According to the item's listing on Amazon.de, the Samsung Extended Battery Kit will become available on January 5. Pricing is relatively consistent with earlier reports, coming in at €39.90, slightly cheaper even than the expected RRP of £40 (€48) in the UK. There is no word yet on if/when we can expect to see wider availability of this. 

Additionally, click on past the break for a quick video -- in Slovenian, and you'll want to spin on to about 1:05 -- which demonstrates the extended battery and replacement battery door. The best news? It doesn't seem to add much additional thickness to the phone. 

Source: Amazon via All About Samsung

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By: Dilusha On 11:42 AM

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Samsung's Galaxy S3 extended battery to become available Jan. 5, in Germany at least

Before the holidays, an OEM extended battery kit surfaced for the Samsung Galaxy S3, initially going on pre-order at a British retailer. While that same retailer is still taking pre-orders for the item without an expected shipping date, Amazon Germany has gone one better. 

According to the item's listing on Amazon.de, the Samsung Extended Battery Kit will become available on January 5. Pricing is relatively consistent with earlier reports, coming in at €39.90, slightly cheaper even than the expected RRP of £40 (€48) in the UK. There is no word yet on if/when we can expect to see wider availability of this. 

Additionally, click on past the break for a quick video -- in Slovenian, and you'll want to spin on to about 1:05 -- which demonstrates the extended battery and replacement battery door. The best news? It doesn't seem to add much additional thickness to the phone. 

Source: Amazon via All About Samsung

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By: Dilusha On 9:58 PM

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Google launches 'Defend your Net' campaign in Germany

There’s a tricky situation unfolding in Germany right now with regards to how search engines handle news excerpts of content from publishers. In short, the government wants to make changes that would force search engines to have to pay a fee to publishers for using news excerpts. It’s a move that many publishers would like to see happen as it would increase revenue but not everything thinks it would be beneficial.

Google, the world’s largest search provider, isn’t too happy with the idea and doesn’t believe German residents will be either. As a result, they have launched a new campaign called Defend Your Net with the goal of educating people about the proposed changes.

The search giant believes that such a law would lead to higher costs, threaten the availability of information, damage the German economy and lead to a lot of legal uncertainty. That may or may not be true depending on which side you stand on.

Google says that publishers already have the ability to opt out of being included in search result services like Google News. In fact, Google News doesn’t have any advertising so it’s not as if they are making money directly from republished news excerpts.

A number of prominent news sites rely heavily on Google search results and Google News for a large portion of their daily traffic. They claim that one news outlet in Germany gets up to 45 percent of its web traffic directly from their Google.de search engine. As a content site owner, it would be virtual suicide to voluntarily exclude your publication from that kind of exposure.

German residents are encouraged to fill out a web form to let the company know how they feel about the changes. Furthermore, they have provided a list with contact information for local parliament members should they want to take it a step further and voice their concerns directly to those representatives.

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By: Dilusha On 11:26 AM

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AMD shutters key Linux support lab in Germany as part of company-wide layoffs

By Steve Dent posted Nov 9th 2012 7:39AM

The pain from recently announced job cuts by AMD could ripple out to the Linux community, as the chipmaker has shut down a small but important Linux OS research facility in Dresden, Germany. The center housed 25 employees who helped port AMD technology like PowerNow over to new Linux distros, and according to The H, many engineers who submitted major processor and chipset revisions for the OS would be pink slipped. The closure won't affect GPU and APU development, according to the source, but it's not yet known exactly who will pick up the slack from the former Dresden team -- though the research center in Austin Texas is reported to be a likely bet.

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By: Dilusha On 4:57 PM

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