Timeline: Google's not so easy street

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc broke Canadian privacy law when it collected data from wireless networks, Canada's privacy commissioner said on Tuesday. This is the latest salvo in an ongoing privacy war that watchdog groups and governments have waged against the Web search giant.

Here's a look at recent setbacks faced by Google since it launched its mapping service in 2007, allowing users to navigate city streets, buildings and traffic with 360-degree views. The street scenes are taken from photos snapped by cameras attached to cars roaming the roads.

* December 2009: Five months after Google Street view was launched in Switzerland, Google agrees to give a week's notice to Swiss authorities before taking photos. This complies with a Swiss court ruling accusing Google of failing to obscure sensitive images and having its cameras peer onto private property, over fences, hedges and walls.

* February 2010: European Union data protection authorities urge Google to shorten the period it stores images from a year to six months because of privacy concerns.

* April 2010: Privacy chiefs in 10 countries write a joint letter to Google criticizing the company for paying "lip service to privacy," while collecting too much information in Google Buzz, a Twitter-like service.

* May 2010: Google says its fleet of cars used for Street View accidentally collected personal information from non-password protected WiFi networks since 2006. Several countries launch privacy investigations soon after and Google grounds its fleet of cars globally.

Complaints registered by members of the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission trigger an informal probe.

* June 2010: Connecticut's attorney general leads a 37-state investigation into whether Google broke the law when it gathered personal data.

* July 2010: Google's street cars resume collecting information in the United States, Ireland, Norway, South Africa and Sweden, but only take pictures and do not collect Wi-Fi data.

* August 2010: South Korean police raid Google's Seoul office ahead of the launch of the Street View service in the country.

* German authorities criticize Google for only giving Germans a 4-week window to register to have their houses not included in the Street View service.

* September 2010: Czech Republic authorities bar Google from collecting new images for Street View.

* Hundreds of thousands of Germans request to have their homes be kept out of Street View mapping service, a German magazine reported.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker; Editing by Richard Chang)