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February 14, 20II
Chairman Julius Genachowski
Federal Communications Commission
445 12
th
Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20554
Dear Chairman Genachowski:
We write regarding the Federal Communication Commission's investigation into
Google's collection ofsensitive consumer data. Google has admitted on several occasions
that it captured and stored email communications and passwords, while it was collecting
360-degree panoramic photographs for its Street View Service.
In May, Members ofthe Energy and Commerce Committee wrote to Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Liebowitz and also to Googie's CEO Eric Schmidt,
in an effort to obtain answers as to how this data breach occurred, who had access to the
data, how many consumers might have been affected and among other things, what types
ofdata were collected.
The FTC dropped its investigation in October 2010, without providing answers to
these serious questions. We also understand that Googie has~edto turn over the data
it collected from consumers to State Attorneys General investigating the breach,
prompting at least one State Attorney General to begin settlement discussions without
having reviewed key information necessary to determine how many consumers may have
been affected.
Consequently, nine months after Google first admitted to collecting this data, we
still don't have answers as to how this privacy breach was allowed to take place and how
many Americans were affected, let alone a credible assurance that it will not happen
again. The lack ofprogress in this investigation is concerning, particularly in light ofthe
progress made by authorities in other countries, such as South Korea, a country one-sixth
the size ofthe U.S., where investigators have been able to review the data captured and
identitY hundreds ofthousands ofaffected consumers.
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A serious inquiry into this matter requires hearing from the engineer that Google
claims is responsible for the data collecting activity. Google's Street View vehicles
captured and stored over 600 gigabytes ofdata. It is difficult to understand how just one
individual could have been responsible for a data collecting operation ofthis scale.
These and other questions warrant serious attention. We therefore urge the
Commission to conduct a full investigation and to get the facts out to American
consumers, whether it finds a technical violation ofthe law or not. We also invite the
Commission to suggest whether legislative action is necessary to enable it to act
appropriately in the future.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
-m .