Second complaint against Google in Spain to capture Internet data

The Spanish consumer organization Facua today filed a complaint against Google to investigate if it violates the Criminal Code to capture information from users of wi-fi for data collection service "Street View".

Facua brought her complaint to the Prosecutor of the Spanish National Court, two days after the Association for the Prevention and Study of Crime, Abuse and Neglect Advanced Computing and Communications (Apedanica) also denounced Google for this reason before a court of Madrid.

Although the Spanish Agency for Data Protection and last May opened an investigation to determine whether Google infringed data protection and rights of citizens, Facua spokesman, Ruben Sanchez, warned today that the maximum penalty that could apply this body at the company would be a fine of 600,000 euros ($ 732,000).

"Something ridiculous for a multinational multi-billion," said Sanchez in a press conference, which held that such sanctions for companies the size of Google does not prevent these practices continue to incur.

Facua spokesman said the data collected by the Internet search engine through its fleet of cars "Street View", the multinational may eventually identify a particular network, the user's name and address it, and access your browsing history.

It is "a very interesting data on a commercial level," said Sanchez, stating that the complaint before the Prosecutor is only a "first step" to investigate the alleged violation of Penal Code.

In addition, the spokesman left open the possibility that the organization presents itself in the case against the Internet giant.

Article 197 of the Spanish Penal Code states as an offender against the privacy to which "to discover the secrets or violate the privacy of another without his consent, takes possession of papers, letters, emails or other documents or effects telecommunications intercept personal use technical devices for listening, transmitting, recording or reproduction. "

For violations of this article, the Code provides a penalty of one to four years in prison, and 12 to 24 months' fine.

The company had already acknowledged in its corporate blog that the fleet of cars that used to take pictures of the streets around the world to develop its mapping service "Street Views" had collected information from users wireless networks for several years, something the Internet search engine blamed a "mistake."

Although Sanchez acknowledged that the percentage of users with open wi-fi is a minority, said Google could provide data on millions of people around the world, taking into account that "Street View" operates in some thirty countries.

Last month, Austria and Greece banned as a precautionary measure the movement of cars "Street View" for violating privacy, while the Privacy Guarantor Authority of Italy has opened an investigation into that service.