Lawmakers question whether Google misled Congress on data collection

Reps. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and John Barrow (D-GA), who both serve on the House Commerce Committee, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking the Justice Department to investigate whether Google misled Congress and regulators over its collection of data from unprotected Wi-Fi networks.

In their letter, Reps Pallone and Barrow noted that Google officials had said, including in testimony before Congress, that the company had "mistakenly" collected the data and never used it. But a Federal Communications Commission report on the issue indicated that the data collection was the deliberate act of a sole Google engineer who did access the personal information. The lawmakers questioned whether the FCC's report shows that Google misled "Congress, federal regulators, and the American public" about the data collection. They asked whether the Justice Department's determination that Google did not break the law was based on the company's past statements, and if so, to re-open its investigation.