• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, May 1, 2012

When the Federal Communications Commission fined Google for impeding a probe of the Wi-Spy debacle, the agency blacked out large sections of its 25-page report. Google has now released a more complete version of that report -- and it shows that the Street Car snooping shouldn't have been a surprise to company executives.

As is now widely known, Google's Street View cars collected payload data -- URLs, passwords, etc. -- from unsecured WiFi networks. Google initially said the data collection was a mistake; the full report makes clear that the engineer who developed the software that collected the data told at least one other person at the company about his plans, and also divulged them in a  written document.

The complete FCC report reveals that Google employees hadn't read the document. "A senior manager of Street View said he 'pre-approved' the design document before it was written," the FCC says.

 One bit of key information missing from the report Google made available was the name of the engineer responsible for the code. The New York Timesreported today that the engineer is Marius Milner, known for creating NetStumbler -- which finds WiFi networks.

While there's no question that the complete report doesn't present the company in a good light, the information in it probably won't affect its liability in a pending class-action lawsuit about the snooping. The key issue in that case isn't whether Google collected data, but whether doing so was illegal. Google argues that material sent through open WiFi neworks is publicly accessible. Therefore, the company says, it didn't violate any laws by gathering that information.

U.S. District Court Judge James Ware -- who is presiding over the class-action lawsuit -- disagreed. He ruled that the transmissions weren't publicly accessible because they couldn't be read without "sophisticated technology." But Ware also granted Google's request to send that question to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which hasn't yet issued a decision.

Meanwhile, the new details to surface about the Street Car snooping have spurred Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) to renew calls for a congressional hearing on the data collection. "Google needs to fully explain to Congress and the public what it knew about the collection of data through its Street View program, why it impeded the FCC investigation, and what it is doing to ensure appropriate privacy safeguards are in place to protect consumer’s personal information," he said in a statement.