Privacy Watchdogs To Government: Probe Google A Little Harder

Image courtesy of (Matt McGee)

Now that the Federal Communications Commission has said Google didn’t do anything wrong while accidentally collecting data with its Street View cars (besides impeding the investigation), privacy watchdogs are pressing for further probes into the company.

The L.A. Times says Washington advocacy group the Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC, originally filed a complaint with the FCC because of Google’s data-collection practices, and they aren’t satisfied. They’ve sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric. H. Holder Jr.

“By the agency’s own admission, the investigation conducted was inadequate and did not address the applicability of federal wiretapping law to Google’s interception of emails, user names, passwords, browsing histories and other personal information,” EPIC’s Executive Director Marc Rotenberg wrote in the letter. “Given the inadequacy of the FCC’s investigation and the law enforcement responsibilities of the attorney general, EPIC urges you to investigate Google’s collection of personal Wi-Fi data from residential networks.”

In addition, Rep. Edward J. Markey, a Democrat from Massachussetts, is urging Congress to get to the bottom of “this serious situation,” saying there are too man unanswered questions.

The FCC fined Google $25,000 for delaying their investigation, but also discharged them of any wrongdoing. And also? To Google, $25,000 is only worth about 68 seconds of profit to them, notes ProPublica. So you just read this post and they made $25,000.

Privacy watchdogs call for new Google probe [L.A. Times]

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