Despite Google's repeated apologies and cooperation with the government agency, the FCC announced this week they will continue with their investigation into criminal violations resulting from the collection of reams of private data from unsecured WiFi networks.
"As the agency charged with overseeing the public airwaves, we are committed to ensuring that the consumers affected by this breach of privacy receive a full and fair accounting," stated the FCC's enforcement bureau chief, Michelle Ellison.
Google maintains that the collection of data during Street View surveys was accidental, and reiterated their mea culpa which emphasizes that the behemoth company ceased the data collection and voluntarily reported the incidents to regulating authorities.
"We are profoundly sorry for having mistakenly collected payload data from unencrypted networks," Google said in a statement.
The discovery that volumes of data were so readily available should be a wake up call to businesses and individuals who leave their WiFi systems unsecured, and should also prove to demonstrate the government's willingness to probe such violations of privacy.