BERLIN - Germany's consumer protection minister strongly criticized Google for a widespread privacy breach and insisted on Saturday the US Internet giant must cooperate better with data protection authorities.

Google Inc. issued an apology on Friday, acknowledging it has been vacuuming up fragments of people's online activities broadcast over public Wi-Fi networks for the past four years while expanding a mapping feature called "Street View."

Minister Ilse Aigner said the "alarming incident" showed that Google still lacks an understanding of the need for privacy. "According to the information available to us so far, Google has for years penetrated private networks, apparently illegally," her office said in a statement on Saturday.