Google Under Police Investigation in the UK with the US Possibly Following

Google has unveiled that it has, inadvertently, been collecting personal Wi-Fi data with its Street View cars in the 30 countries where the service is available. While Google says what it did, though ‘wrong,’ was not illegal, a growing number of countries are launching investigations and getting the authorities involved. 30 Attorneys General in the US are currently in talks over a joint investigation of the matter and the UK Metropolitan Police has launched an investigation.

Last week, the meeting of a number of Attorneys General from several US states ended with a decision to pursue the case jointly by more than 30, as Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who led the proposition, now claims. He says more have expressed their intention to join at a later date and he expects a significant number of states to take part eventually.

It’s unclear if Google actually broke any state or federal laws in the US since, the company claims, it had no intention of collecting the personal data and it was not used in any way. An investigation may uncover other bits of information that could point in another way, though.

In the UK, the Metropolitan Police is now officially investigating the data breach. Google’s UK staff may be interviewed as part of the process, but the initial investigation should not take longer than ten days, the police says. If, after this period, Google is believed to be in breach of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) or the Wireless Telegraphy Act, a specialized team will take over the investigation.

The investigation in the UK is the result of a complaint from the Privacy International rights group, which made some exaggerated remarks in the case before. The group basically accused Google of what the company had already admitted to while making it seem like Google was hiding something.

"We hope that this difficult process will give Google pause for thought about how it conducts itself. Perhaps in future the company will rely less on PR spin and more on good governance and reliable product oversight," Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, told the BBC. Of course, anyone actually following the case knows that the only “PR spin” came from a post on the official Google blog in which the company bluntly admitted to everything that it had done, none of its claims having been disputed or proven false so far.

Previous coverage of the Google Wi-Fi Data Collection blunder:

- German Officials ‘Horrified’ by Google Street View WiFi Snooping
- Google Details Its Wi-Fi Data-Collection Policies
- Google Admits to Collecting Personal Wi-Fi Data
- Google’s Personal Wi-Fi Data Debacle Unravels
- Google Stops Deleting Personal Wi-Fi Data It Collected
- Google Refuses to Hand Over Wi-Fi Data to Regulators
- Media Scaremongering in the Google Wi-Fi Blunder
- Google to Hand Over Wi-Fi Data to European Regulators
- Google Wi-Fi Audit Proves Criminal Intent, Says Privacy Group
- Attorneys General from 30 US States Are Considering Pressing Charges Against Google
- Google Street View Wi-Fi Data Contains Passwords, Emails, France Says