Google UK privacy manager worked for ICO during Street View probe Google's UK privacy manager worked at the Information Commissioner's Office during its Street View investigation, it has emerged. Photograph: Harold Cunningham/Getty Images Google's UK privacy manager was a senior official at the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) during its much-criticised investigation into Street View, it has emerged. Stephen McCartney joined Google as its London-based privacy policy manager in November last year - 18 months after he was in charge of data protection promotion at the watchdog at the same time that it cleared the company over its secret data collection by Street View cars. The ICO reopened its investigation in June following fresh evidence from a US regulator. Rob Halfon, the Tory MP for Harlow who has been critical of the ICO and Google over the data capture, said he would raise the matter in parliament. He told the Guardian: "This is a pretty shocking revelation. It raises more questions about the information commissioner than it does Google because clearly the ICO has been asleep on their watch on this issue. McCartney was one of the top officials at the ICO at the time of its 2010 investigation. However, the ICO said McCartney was not involved in its original investigation. The news came to light following a Freedom of Information request by a member of the public who noticed that McCartney, formerly the head of data protection promotion at the ICO, had more recently been writing to the ICO itself from Google as it responded to the latest investigation. The 2010 probe faced a barrage of criticism by privacy activists who said it failed to get to the bottom of Google's mistaken capture of emails, passwords and other private data from internet users. The ICO reopened its investigation in June after a detailed probe by the US Federal Communications Commission, which concluded that the data collection was not the action of a single "rogue engineer," and that one senior manager had been told that the system could capture Wi-Fi data. Google was fined $25,000 by the FCC, which could find no evidence of criminal wrongdoing under US law, but said Google had "wilfully and repeatedly" failing to respond fully to an official letter of inquiry. The news will also prove uncomfortable for Google, which has been plagued by the data scoop since first admitting it in May 2010. The ICO confirmed in the Freedom of Information request that McCartney formerly worked there. His LinkedIn page says he was the head of data protection promotion and strategic liaison group manager at the ICO for seven years until November 2011. Halfon said that the ICO "acted after the horse had bolted and have been woefully lacking." He added: "Now it seems they have had a cosy relationship with the company they have been investigating." The ICO also released correspondence between its office and McCartney over the Street View issue from April to June this year. In one email on 4 May 2012 to the information commissioner Christopher Graham, McCartney - at Google - complains about "significant errors" in the reporting of a US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) investigation into the so-called "payload" data collection. "We are aware that there have been significant errors in the reporting of the content of this notice by the media, and that some data protection authorities have made statements to the media on the basis of these errors," McCartney wrote to the ICO. We have always recognised that we failed badly here, and we are happy to answer any questions authorities may have. But we do feel that there are factual errors in some of the reporting that needs to be addressed. He then goes on to highlight four points from the FCC report, but does not give examples of misreporting by the media. In other emails, McCartney alerts the information commissioner to the planned publication of the FCC report, which Google voluntarily published at the end of April. A spokesman for the ICO said: "Stephen McCartney played no part in the investigation into the Google Street View project while working at ICO. In any event, ICO employees continue to be legally bound by a confidentiality agreement after they leave the organisation, as part of the Data Protection Act. The published correspondence between Google and the ICO clearly shows that Stephen McCartney was treated like any other organisation's representative, with his emails receiving nothing more than a polite acknowledgement.  Stephen Eckersley, the ICO's head of enforcement, continues to investigate Google's actions with regard to the Street View project. A Google spokesman said: "We do not comment on individual employees."