Google 'aware of data scoop'

Google's harvesting of emails, passwords and other sensitive personal information from unsuspecting households in Australia and around the world was neither a mistake nor the work of a rogue engineer, as the company long maintained, but a program that supervisors knew about, according to new details from the full text of a regulatory report.

The report, prepared by the US Federal Communications Commission after a 17-month investigation of Google's Street View project, was released, heavily redacted, two weeks ago.

Although it found that Google had not violated any laws, the agency said Google had obstructed the inquiry and fined the company $US25,000. On Saturday, Google released a version of the report with only employees' names redacted.

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