Lawmaker wants answers from Google on Wi-Fi snooping case

Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.) sent a letter on Thursday to Google CEO Larry Page demanding that the company reveal more information about why it collected data from unprotected Wi-Fi networks.

Barrow noted that it has been two years since Google acknowledged that it had been collecting the data, but he said, "American consumers and Congress still haven’t received a full account of what happened."

From 2007 to 2010, Google cars collected data from nearby Wi-Fi networks as they drove through neighborhoods taking pictures for the company's Google Maps Street View project. The data included Internet activity, passwords and other personal information.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined Google $25,000, saying the company "deliberately impeded and delayed" the government's investigation into the case. But the FCC was unable to conclude whether Google violated wiretapping laws. 

Barrow asked Google to respond to the FCC's charge that it was uncooperative.

"As the FCC said in their report, we provided all the materials necessary for them to conduct their investigation," a Google spokeswoman said in a statement. "We agree with the FCC's conclusion that we did not break the law, but believe that we did cooperate in their investigation, and we made that clear in our response to the FCC."

Barrow also noted that Google had indicated the data collection was inadvertent. In congressional testimony, Page had said that the company "mistakenly" included code in its software that caused the collection of personal information.

But an unredacted version of the FCC's report indicated that the data collection was the deliberate act of a Google engineer. The report indicated that the engineer told other Google employees about the program, but conceived it and carried it out alone. 

"After two years, I believe it’s critical that we now have a complete understanding of what happened in this matter," Barrow wrote.

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