Firstpost
  • Home
  • Video Shows
    Vantage Firstpost America Firstpost Africa First Sports
  • World
    US News
  • Explainers
  • News
    India Opinion Cricket Tech Entertainment Sports Health Photostories
  • Asia Cup 2025
Apple Incorporated Modi ji Justin Trudeau Trending

Sections

  • Home
  • Live TV
  • Videos
  • Shows
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Health
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • Web Stories
  • Business
  • Impact Shorts

Shows

  • Vantage
  • Firstpost America
  • Firstpost Africa
  • First Sports
  • Fast and Factual
  • Between The Lines
  • Flashback
  • Live TV

Events

  • Raisina Dialogue
  • Independence Day
  • Champions Trophy
  • Delhi Elections 2025
  • Budget 2025
  • US Elections 2024
  • Firstpost Defence Summit
Trending:
  • Nepal protests
  • Nepal Protests Live
  • Vice-presidential elections
  • iPhone 17
  • IND vs PAK cricket
  • Israel-Hamas war
fp-logo
Google disputes FCC claims of obstruction
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter
Apple Incorporated Modi ji Justin Trudeau Trending

Sections

  • Home
  • Live TV
  • Videos
  • Shows
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Health
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • Web Stories
  • Business
  • Impact Shorts

Shows

  • Vantage
  • Firstpost America
  • Firstpost Africa
  • First Sports
  • Fast and Factual
  • Between The Lines
  • Flashback
  • Live TV

Events

  • Raisina Dialogue
  • Independence Day
  • Champions Trophy
  • Delhi Elections 2025
  • Budget 2025
  • US Elections 2024
  • Firstpost Defence Summit
  • Home
  • Tech
  • News & Analysis
  • Google disputes FCC claims of obstruction

Google disputes FCC claims of obstruction

fptechno • April 27, 2012, 17:08:22 IST
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter

Google said it would have been of little help to U.S. regulators to give them access to the engineer who wrote a computer program that let its Street View cars collect emails, passwords and other personal data from people’s home wireless networks.

Advertisement
Subscribe Join Us
Add as a preferred source on Google
Prefer
Firstpost
On
Google
Google disputes FCC claims of obstruction

Google said it would have been of little help to U.S. regulators to give them access to the engineer who wrote a computer program that let its Street View cars collect emails, passwords and other personal data from people’s home wireless networks. “The fact that the engineer was legally unavailable did not leave any significant factual questions unanswered,” Google wrote in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau on Thursday. Google was fined $25,000 by the FCC for impeding its investigation into the matter, in which the company’s Street View cars collected the Wi-Fi data over several years while crisscrossing the globe taking panoramic pictures of streets. Google, which generated roughly $38 billion in revenue last year, said it would pay the FCC fine to “put this  investigation behind it,” but disputed the agency’s claims that it did not cooperate with the 18-month investigation.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD

Google Raiders

Google under investigation

Google said in the letter that it was legally unable to provide access to the engineer - referred to as Engineer Doe - because the engineer had declined to testify and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The FCC said earlier this month that it would not take any enforcement action against Google for the incidents, which Google has called a “mistake.” The agency said it wasn’t clear that Google violated federal wiretap laws by collecting unencrypted personal data that people transmitted over their wireless home (WiFi) networks. The incident, and the FCC’s lack of enforcement action, have prompted protest from privacy advocates. United States Representative Edward Markey has called for Congress to hold a hearing about Google’s actions, which he said “leave many questions unanswered.”

More from News & Analysis
What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

The Federal Trade Commission ended an investigation into the matter in 2010 without imposing any penalties on Google. The company displays the pictures taken by its Street View cars in its online Maps product, but collecting the WiFi data was unrelated to the Google Maps project, and was done instead so that Google could collect data on WiFi hotspots that can be used to provide separate location-based services. Google has said it thought it was only collecting a limited type of WiFi data relating to a WiFi network’s name and router numbers, but later discovered that it was collecting so-called pay-load data including email messages, website addresses and passwords. Google blamed the snafu on a piece of computer code that was accidentally included from an experimental project.

Google said that it reviewed more than half a million documents for the FCC and arranged for interviews with “everyone the FCC asked to meet.” Google said that most of the delays in the investigation were due to the agency’s internal processes, and that Google agreed to extend the statutory deadline for the FCC probe by seven months. “That is hardly the act of a party stonewalling an investigation,” said the letter from a lawyer representing Google. While the engineer responsible for the rogue code would not talk to the FCC, Google said he had fully cooperated with the company’s internal investigation, stating that he “believed the collection of publicly broadcast information sent over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks to be lawful.”

REUTERS

Tags
Google Street View Web services Street View cars Google Fined Federal trade Commission Google
End of Article
Latest News
Find us on YouTube
Subscribe
End of Article

Top Stories

Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty

Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty

Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?

Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?

Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House

Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House

Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty

Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty

Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?

Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?

Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House

Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House

Top Shows

Vantage Firstpost America Firstpost Africa First Sports
Latest News About Firstpost
Most Searched Categories
  • Web Stories
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • IPL 2025
NETWORK18 SITES
  • News18
  • Money Control
  • CNBC TV18
  • Forbes India
  • Advertise with us
  • Sitemap
Firstpost Logo

is on YouTube

Subscribe Now

Copyright @ 2024. Firstpost - All Rights Reserved

About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Terms Of Use
Home Video Shorts Live TV