Google got itself into hot water with the Italian government over the appearance of its Street View cars and received a hefty fine, according to Reuters.
Authorities stated the cars were not easily identifiable as Google's photo-snapping vehicles, which it uses to attain images for Google Maps' Street View function. Google was fined 1 million euro ($1.4m) by Italy, and has reportedly already paid the amount in full. Complaints over this issue were made by citizens in 2010, resulting in this fine.
"Cars belonging to the giant of Mountain View roamed Italy's streets without being entirely recognizable as such, therefore not allowing the people present in those places to decide whether to be photographed or not," Italy's data protection body said in a statement to Reuters.
Street View photos are pasted together to create a 3D environment in Google Maps, where you can look around at an address as if you were on the ground there yourself. The Street View cars patrol towns and cities taking pictures for the service, but the Italian authorities did not think they were identified clearly enough. This violates peoples' rights to choose whether or not have their picture taken in public to be posted on the service.
The program has gotten Google into trouble before. It drew the tech company a $25,000 fine from the FCC in 2012 for not cooperating in an investigation into its Street View cars' unauthorized collection of data. Google also had restrictions placed upon the service in Switzerland, and gave up on continuing the operation in Germany altogether due to regulatory obstacles.
Source: BGR
