Inside Google

A US consumer site claimed that Google Street View may well have cast its beady Orwellian eye over US politicians’ wi-fi networks.

Consumer Watchdog said that if that happened, US national security data could have been compromised.  It said that Representative Jane Harman, who chairs the Intelligence Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee “has at least one wireless network in her Washington DC home that could have been breached by Google.”

That has prompted Consumer Watchdog to pen a letter or point some pixels at Harman and 18 other members of the House and Energy Committee who live in houses that are on Street view.

Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, described the process as a “massive example of wire tapping”. Consumer Watchdog warned: “Whether it’s compromising government secrets or our personal financial information, Google’s unprecedented WiSpying threatens the security of the American people and Congress owes Americans action.”

Consumer Watchdog simulated Street View and sent packet sniffers to the neighbourhoods where the members lived – it found several unencrypted networks, including Jane Harman’s.

Consumer Watchdog avoided recording payload data, it said. It believes that Street View was “an unwarrented intrusion by Google into legislative branch matters”.

Insidegoogle, which the organisation owns, has published data on its web site, here.