Google Street View privacy scandal heats up again as report surfaces

San Francisco - It looks like Google Inc. won't be able to put the Street View privacy scandal in its rear-view mirror any time soon.

A newly unredacted report from federal investigators and fresh information about the engineer behind the data-collecting software are casting doubt on Google's assurances that it did not realize that its street-mapping cars were snatching personal data from Wi-Fi networks used by millions of unsuspecting households.

Google has blamed the data collection on a lone engineer, but the report suggests that the practice was known more widely within the company.

The revelations could trigger congressional hearings and reignite the controversy that Google may have thought was behind it when several federal regulatory agencies closed their investigations without bringing any charges.

"Google's motto has always been 'Do no evil.' It should also be 'Do no eavesdropping,'" said Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "Google needs to fully explain to Congress and the public what it knew about the collection of data through its Street View program."

In addition to a potential congressional probe, a coalition of more than 40 state attorneys general, led by Connecticut and including California and New York, is pressing ahead with its inquiry.

Consumers have also filed nearly a dozen civil lawsuits they hope to combine into a class action in federal court, while privacy watchdogs are hounding Google and accusing the Federal Communications Commission of botching its investigation into the search giant.

The FCC began investigating Google after the company acknowledged in 2010 that its Street View cars "mistakenly" collected personal data that was being sent and received on home Wi-Fi networks. The main purpose of the cars was to photograph streets for the company's popular Google Maps service.

The FCC found that Google did not violate wiretapping laws, but it fined the company $25,000 for obstructing the probe, saying in a heavily redacted report that Google was slow to cooperate in identifying the engineers involved in the Street View project.

But on Friday the Los Angeles Times obtained an unredacted version, which revealed that the engineer in question, "Engineer Doe," had informed several members of the Street View team that he had written software code to scoop data from Wi-Fi networks. The engineer refused to testify in the FCC probe, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

On Tuesday, the New York Times identified the engineer as Marius Milner, a wireless networking specialist noted for his work on "wardriving." In the obscure tech hobby, laptop-toting enthusiasts drive around trying to locate and categorize as many local wireless networks as they can.

A former colleague who posted a recommendation of Milner on his LinkedIn page described him as a "god" in the wireless community.

Though Google attempted to paint Engineer Doe as an employee acting on his own, industry officials said it would be difficult for one engineer to alter an important part of such a large system - one affecting hundreds of cars using software that required regular updating and that generated huge amounts of data.

"It's virtually impossible to string together a system like that and have only one person know about it," said Ted Morgan, chief executive of Skyhook Inc., a wireless data company that worked with Google before they became rivals when Skyhook teamed up with Apple Inc.

Skyhook is now suing Google over allegations that the search giant pressured phone makers to drop Skyhook's location software. But in 2006, Skyhook cooperated with Google on a program to make Wi-Fi ubiquitous, Morgan said, and Milner was one of the technology leads on the project.

"He was actually considered a very good guy - he never came across as an Anonymous-type hacker or anything," Morgan said.