As Connecticut Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal sharply criticized Google, the online search engine kingpin, for collecting information about Connecticut consumers while taking pictures traveling through neighborhoods with its street-level cameras.
Now, as U.S. Senator, Blumenthal will be involved in a public hearing next week on the subject of Google's dominance of the computer search industry. The Senate judiciary committee's subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights will hold a public hearing entitled "The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?" on September 21 in Washington, D.C.
The meeting will be led by subcommittee chairman Herb Kohl of Wisconsin of the famed Kohl's department store family.
Last year, Blumenthal blasted Google for its practice of collecting data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks through wireless routers while gathering images for Google Maps.
Google immediately said that the information was collected mistakenly and unintentionally in 2008, and Blumenthal demanded to see the data last December. The information includes confidential e-mails, passwords, and various Web browsing information, which Blumenthal described as a "deeply disturbing invasion of personal privacy.''
Soon after, Blumenthal was leading a multi-state investigation that eventually grew into a coalition of 40 states that was trying to get to the bottom of the issue.