U.S. ends inquiry on Google's Street View cars

The Federal Trade Commission said in a letter to Google on Wednesday that it was ending its probe with no penalties, a victory for the world's largest Internet company, though it still faces multiple privacy challenges abroad as well as from more than 30 U.S. state prosecutors.

Just this week, British regulators announced plans to make further inquiries and to consider whether to use enforcement powers after Google admitted that the WiFi-equipped vehicles it sends to take photographs for Google Maps had inadvertently also grabbed emails and passwords.

Britain's Information Commissioner's Office had said in August that it believed Google's cars were unlikely to have captured significant amounts of personal data.

Prosecutors in Rome are also investigating whether Google's StreetView service violated privacy laws, a judicial source told Reuters on Wednesday.

But the FTC commended Google for building consumer privacy into its corporate structure, such as by appointing a director of privacy for engineering and product management, training key employees on privacy, and building a formal privacy review into the early phases of new initiatives.

"Because of these commitments, we are ending our inquiry into this matter at this time," David Vladek, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, wrote in the letter.