Google’s legal department got some good news Wednesday. The Federal Trade Commission notified the company that it was calling off its inquiry into the search engine’s collection of consumer data transmitted over wireless networks by its Street View cars.
The news was announced in a letter to outside counsel Albert Gidari, a partner at Perkins Coie in Seattle, from David Vladek, director of the bureau of consumer protection. In it, Vladek said Google had responded to concerns that it had collected unencrypted “payload data” by appointing a director of privacy for engineering and product management, providing additional staff training on privacy issues, and incorporating a formal privacy review process for new initiatives.
