Uproar Over Google’s Wi-Fi Data Harvest

By John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 5/24/2010 12:01:00 AM

Washington — The co-chairmen of the House Privacy Caucus have stopped just short of calling for an investigation into Google over revelations that the company gathered private information transmitted over Wi-Fi networks, though the clear undertone of their message is that such a probe should be in the works, if not already underway.

In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz, Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) on May 19 pointed out Google has admitted it collected private email and data on Internet surfing, and said it has not clarified the nature or extent of the information it collected as part of its Google Street View mapping initiative.

In addition to taking pictures, the legislators noted, Google recorded Wi- Fi signals and their accompanying identifying information. Markey and Barton have asked for responses to a number of questions including: Is the Federal Trade Commission investigating the matter?

If so, the legislators want to know what the FTC knows about how the data were stored and who had access to it, whether Google’s actions violate the public’s “reasonable expectation” of privacy and if this is an unfair and deceptive practice that could harm consumers.

If Google’s actions are illegal under federal law, the FTC has the authority to take action.

The lawmakers gave Google until June 2 to respond.

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) is currently working on privacy legislation meant to protect private data from being collected without the user’s knowledge or consent.

After an audit of its Street View initiative, which collects Wi-Fi data for Google Maps and other location-based applications, Google conceded in a blog post (http://googlepublicpolicy. blogspot.com/) that it had been collecting the names and wi-fi router addresses and data sent over the networks. Google said its initial denial of collecting data was a mistake, as was collecting that data, which it said it never used. Google has said it grounded the Street View cars collecting the data and will make it inaccessible.

An FTC spokeswoman confirmed the agency had received the letter, but had no comment on its contents.