BBC News Technologyreports that Google has been fined 145,000 euros (£125,000) by European data regulators in Germany for illegally recording information from unsecured Wi-Fi networks.

See also: Indestructible Wi-Fi networks?

Google reportedly said it never intended to store the personal data, which was captured from 2008 through 2010, while the company gathered drive-by information for its Street View service. In a statement, European regulators said: "Among the information gathered in the drive-bys were significant amounts of personal data of varying quality. For example, emails, passwords, photos and chat protocols were collected."

The search giant admitted it unintentionally collected the data. Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt told the BBC that the violation came from "the [unauthorized] actions of a single individual."

Full story:Google fined over illegal wi-fi data capture in Germany (www.bbc.co.uk)