Steve Lohr and David Streitfeld of the New York Times put a name to “Engineer Doe” in the FCC investigation of the Google Street View investigation. “Doe” was the engineer who we now know wrote code to intentionally scoop up payload data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks. According to the less-redacted version of the FCC’s report (voluntarily released by Google after EPIC filed under FOI to obtain it), Doe did inform others of what he was doing, but Google claims that management did not read his communications.
A state investigator who spoke with the NYT identified the engineer as Marius Milner. Google had reportedly given his name to state investigators in December 2010.
The release of the report has raised new questions about Google’s public claims that this was all “accidental.” It has also raised questions as to why the FCC did not disclose to the public that they had found evidence of intentional data collection. In an OpEd yesterday, Chris Soghoian called on Congress to investigate the FCC for its failure to really inform the public of its findings.
In the meantime, there’s talk in the U.K. of the Met Police opening its own investigation of the breach under RIPA. While the Information Commissioner’s Office can investigate data protection aspects, law enforcement investigates possible violations of RIPA.