Privacy watchdogs call for new Google probe

Privacy watchdogs are urging the nation's top law enforcer to launch a new investigation into Google Inc. after the Federal Communications Commission did not find evidence that the company broke eavesdropping laws in collecting Internet data from millions of unknowing U.S. households.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC, the Washington advocacy group that filed the original complaint with the FCC over Google's controversial data-collection practices, sent a letter Monday to U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. calling the FCC's probe insufficient. "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." Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called for Congress to hold a hearing "to get to the bottom of this serious situation." "The circumstances surrounding Google's surreptitious siphoning of personal information leave many unanswered questions," he said.