After admitting to collecting data from Wi-Fi networks, Google could find itself at the center of investigations in both Germany and the U.S. The data was being collected by the cars Google uses for its mapping service, which also collected Wi-Fi addresses and snippets of data.

“This may be one of the most massive surveillance incidents by a private corporation that has ever occurred”, said Marc Rotenberg, leader of the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Centre in Washington.“It is unprecedented vacuuming of WiFi data by a private company. Can you imagine what would happen if a German corporation was sending cars through Washington sucking up all this information?”

Google set for probes on data harvesting [Financial Times]