Google fined $25,000 for impeding US investigation into StreetView "As the FCC notes in their report, we provided all the materials the regulators felt they needed to conclude their investigation and we were not found to have violated any laws," the company said in a statement. We disagree with the FCC's characterisation of our co-operation in their investigation and will be filing a response. Between May 2007 and May 2010, Google collected data from Wi-Fi networks throughout the United States and across the world as part of its Street View project, which gives users of Google Map and Google Earth the ability to view street-level images of structures and land adjacent to roads and highways. But Google also collected passwords, internet usage history and other sensitive personal data that was not needed for its location database project, the FCC said. Google publicly acknowledged in May 2010 that it had collected the so-called payload data, leading to an FCC investigation on whether it had violated the Communications Act.