Google to Face Spanish Judge in October Over WiFi Data Collection

It's been going on for a few months now. We've seen government agencies, like the FTC, as well as entire governments get involved, and now Google is being summoned by a judge in Spain to sort out this whole fiasco. At least, as it relates to those in Spain. The reason? That data that Google collected from WiFi locations all over the place, is apparently still rubbing folks the wrong way. We saw the results over in South Korea, and now it's Spain's turn to dive in.

According to the Spanish Legal Advanced Communications and Computer Crime Association (Apedanica), which is an Internet rights group, Google has been summoned to "stand" before a judge in Madrid. The appearance is set for October 4th. Basically, it will be up to Google to inform the judge as to what exactly is going on. They will have to give details on the instruments used to collect this data, how many people were affected by it, and what the data entails, specifically.

A Google spokesperson said, "We are working with the relevant authorities in Spain to answer any questions they may have." That's about as normal a PR response as you can get, but it almost hints that Google wants to stay out of the courts. We're not sure how that would be possible, especially with the problem popping up all over the place, but we'll have to wait and see what happens.

[via CNET]