Google Inc. recorded passwords and bits of e-mail messages while collecting data for its Street View mapping service, France’s privacy watchdog said Thursday after conducting the first outside review of the information.

Google, under investigation in several nations for possible privacy breaches because of its data-gathering practices for Street View, collected data without the knowledge of the people concerned, said France’s Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertes, or CNIL. Officials in Germany, Spain and other European countries started probing the practices of Google over how it collected data from Wi-Fi networks.

“The recording of such data could put Google in possession of data such as visited Web sites, the content of exchanged messages or even passwords,” the French data-protection agency said in a statement. “That’s why the agency went on site on May 19 for an inspection of the nature of the collected data and the measures taken to remedy this.”

The privacy practices of Google, owner of the world’s most-used search engine, have also come under scrutiny in Canada, the Czech Republic and Italy. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission said it would take a “very close look” at Google’s data gathering.

The Mountain View company has said it’s cooperating with the authorities.

“We have reached out to the data protection authorities in the relevant countries and are working with them to answer any questions they have,” Google said in an e-mailed statement. “Our ultimate objective is to delete the data consistent with our legal obligations and in consultation with the appropriate authorities.”

The French regulator said it’s “the first data protection authority in the world to get access to the data collected by Google in the case of Street View” and that “it seems the Spanish and German authorities have made the same request.”

via French probe Google over privacy.