Google has been fined 145,000 euros by German data regulators for illegally recording information from unsecured wi-fi networks.

The data protection office in the northern Germany city of Hamburg imposed the fine for the violation of privacy during the years 2008 to 2010.

In 2010 Google admitted the Street view cars it uses to collect data for its Google Maps also collected emails, passwords, photos, logs of chats and more data from open Wifi sources in a number for european countries, including Germany.

Under European regulations, the maximum fine for an accidental violation is 150,000 euros- but data protection supervisorJohannes Caspar called for that amount to be increased in future.

Source: Bloomberg