Google tells lawmakers it never used Wi-Fi data

In a letter to three key members of the House Commerce Committee, the company apologized for collecting fragments of e-mails, search requests and other online activities over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks.

The company got the information while photographing neighborhoods for its "Street View" mapping feature. Google said it was trying to gather information about the location, strength and configuration of Wi-Fi networks so it could improve the accuracy of location-based services such as Google Maps and driving directions. Going further and collecting snippets of information traveling over those networks "was a mistake," Pablo Chavez, Google's director of public policy, wrote in the letter.

Google's letter, released Friday, was a response to an inquiry by Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey, a key member of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet. The letter was addressed to Barton, Markey and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., has also expressed concern about Google's actions.

Although the company used its Street View cars as a platform for the Wi-Fi equipment, the Street View photographs and the collection of Wi-Fi network information are separate efforts. Google says it has stopped grabbing Wi-Fi data from its Street View vehicles since it discovered the data collection problem last month following an inquiry by German regulators.