The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) reopened its probe of Google...

its probe into the search engine company’s capture of data from Wi-Fi networks across the U.S., ICO Head of Enforcement Steve Eckersley said. The FCC concluded that Google logged the data -- including complete email messages and headings, instant messages and their content, log-in credentials, medical listings and legal infractions, information relating to online dating and visits to pornographic websites, and data contained in video and audio files -- as the Street View car drove around, while “millions of unknowing internet users across the USA were online,” Eckersley wrote. “It therefore seems likely such information was deliberately captured” during Street View operations in the U.K., he said. Apparently, software installed in the cars used to capture the payload data over the Internet was deliberately written in 2006 by an engineer who worked on the GSV project, he said. That engineer notified two other Google engineers, one of whom was a senior manager, that he was collecting the data, he wrote. The engineer also gave the entire GSV team a copy of the document in October 2006 outlining his work on the project, he said. The ICO previously investigated Street View but dropped the matter after the company said limited information had been mistakenly collected, Eckersley said. If the data was deliberately gathered, however, “then it is clear that this is a different situation than was reported to us,” he said. The privacy watchdog sought additional information from Google that includes: (1) A list of exactly what type of personal data and sensitive personal data was captured in the payload in the U.K. (2) At what point Google managers became aware of the kind of payload being collected during U.K. operations and what technical or organizational measures they put in place to limit further data collection prior to the admissions Google made on a May 14, 2010, blog post. (3) A “substantial explanation” on why that type of data wasn’t included in the pre-prepared data sample presented to the ICO for review. (4) At what point senior managers saw the software design document. (5) The privacy concerns identified by Google managers once the engineer revealed what he'd done. (6) What measures were taken to prevent breaches of U.K data protection law at each stage of the GSV process. The ICO also asked for certificates showing the destruction of the captured payload data. A Google spokesman was quoted by the BBC and others as saying the company is happy to answer the ICO’s questions: “We have always said that the project leaders did not want and did not use this payload data,” and that they never looked at it. It’s absolutely right that the investigation be reopened, said U.K. civil liberties group Big Brother Watch. This probe “must now be pursued with the vigor sadly lacking in 2010, and every effort made to ensure that Google answers the extremely important questions that it has so far avoided,” the organization said.