Reps. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and John Barrow (D-Ga.) sent a letter on Thursday to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to reopen the investigation in the Street View project because Google “may have misled Congress, federal regulators, and the American public” about the data collection.
Google repeatedly told Congress that the collection of data sent over WiFi networks using its Street View cars was a mistake, the lawmakers noted.
However, the FCC recently released a report that concluded a Google engineer intentionally included the data collection capability in the Street View application and told others in the company about the data collection. The FCC ended up fining the company a mere $25,000 for impeding its investigation.
“The facts…demonstrate that this activity was not the act of a single individual, but rather of an entire team; that at least one senior manager at Google was aware of this conduct and that many others at Google were involved in carrying it out, whether by reviewing the software code that facilitated the collection, or by deploying and testing it”, the lawmakers wrote in the letter.
The Justice Department closed its investigation last year into whether Google violated federal wiretap law with its Street View project. “We are writing to request that the department evaluate whether its determination was based on the facts that have come to light more recently, and, if not, whether it would be appropriate to re-open its investigation to assess whether Google's conduct may in fact have violated the law”, the lawmakers wrote.