Ah, France. Land of beautiful beaches, a respectable railway
system, and more unexplained delays and work stoppages than
anywhere else in the developed world. Oh, and a primary airport
that forces you to use "tickets" to buy food from certain
vendors and refuses to complete a CDG -> JFK flight on schedule.
Gripes aside, it seems that at least one thing is getting done
today over in The country of the Human Rights, with France's
data protection regulator confirming a record €100,000 fine sent
over to Google in relation to improper data collection during
its Street View sweeps. Granted, El Le Goog has run into privacy
issues before on this very matter, but none quite as ginormous
as these. The National Commission for Computing and Civil
Liberties claims that the company's infractions include
"collecting passwords and email transferred wirelessly," and its
highest ever fined has been levied due to the "economic
advantages Google gained from these violations." We're told that
the company has two months to appeal