Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal said Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has refused to hand over controversial WiFi data the company collected in his state from Street View cars.
Blumenthal had issued, in cooperation with the state's Department of Consumer Protection, a civil investigative complaint that compelled Google to hand over the data by 5 p.m., Friday, Dec. 17. Blumenthal says he will decide whether legal action is warranted.
In May, Google admitted it unknowingly collected WiFi payload data from access points that might have included personal information. Google last month admitted the information included entire email addresses, web addresses and passwords.
Blumenthal said his office needed to verify what confidential information the company "surreptitiously and wrongfully collected and stored." He had argued that Google allowed Canadian and other regulatory authorities to review similar data, but continues to refuse to provide Blumenthal's office the same access.
In the U.S., The Federal Trade Commission halted its inquiry with no action taken, but now the FCC wants to find out if any laws were violated. The FTC concluded Google had implemented enough new privacy standards to ensure it won't use the collected data.
For more:
- see this AP article
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