Comment Getting punished for "doing the right thing" (Score 2, Interesting) 318
It's sad that Google is getting punished for "doing the right thing" and being honest about their screw-up.
Google: Oops! We accidentally collected all this data we weren't supposed to. Sorry, but we thought you should know. We'll just be deleting* that now... Germany: NO! You don't respect EU laws! Turn that data over!
If Google had just kept quiet and didn't admit their wrongdoing, nobody would have known about the issue, and there wouldn't be any of the wrangling we see now. But should a company keep quiet whenever it fucks up? A culture of denial is worse. It's sad, because it's exactly this sort of persecution which creates a culture where companies never admit anything, ever.
* Except the legal department probably advised them against deleting the data right after the confession, just in case something like this happened.