A U.S. Senator wants to know whether six big tech companies gather personal data from local wireless, or Wi-Fi, networks, and what they do with the information.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D – Conn.) made the request in a letter Tuesday to Google Inc., Apple Inc., Microsoft Inc. and three other companies. Gathering information from wireless networks “raises issues regarding what constitutes a reasonable expectation of privacy” for people who install networks to share files or tap the Internet, Mr. Blumenthal wrote.

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Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)

The request comes roughly a year after Google said it had mistakenly gathered personal data, including emails, from wireless networks as part of its StreetView mapping program. The company stopped using the cars to gather Wi-Fi data.

Wireless transmissions are again under scrutiny in Washington after recent public discussion about tech firms compiling location information from phones about Wi-Fi networks. The data help the companies build databases used to deliver services such as maps to mobile devices. Those databases let phones calculate their locations more quickly than using global-positioning satellites.

To make these databases, companies generally collect things like addresses of nearby Wi-Fi access points, not the content of people’s communications.

Sen. Blumenthal asked the companies to describe what data they get from Wi-Fi networks and how they get it. He also asks them to describe the data and collection methods they have “contemplated” using.

Mr. Blumenthal raised the issue at a Senate hearing last week, where he asked a Google representative about a 2008 patent application for “wireless network-based location approximation.” That patent application described a process of intercepting some data from wireless networks — but not the content of transmissions that was problematic for Google in StreetView. Google has said the patent application is not related to the StreetView Wi-Fi collection.

Some information from Wi-Fi routers is broadcast publicly, which is how your computer can detect nearby wireless hotspots. Sen. Blumenthal’s letter questions whether such data should be considered private – an idea that has not gained much traction before. But the letter also raises questions about the tendency by tech companies to collect as much data as possible, on the chance it will be useful someday.

In addition to Google, Apple and Microsoft, Mr. Blumenthal sent his letter to Nokia Corp., BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. and Skyhook Wireless Inc., which offers location information based partly on Wi-Fi network data.

A Google spokesman said, “We have received Senator Blumenthal’s letter and look forward to answering his questions.” Microsoft and Apple declined to comment. Nokia, Research In Motion and Skyhook Wireless did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

UPDATE: Skyhook founder Ted Morgan tells Digits: “We welcome the questions and would be glad to answer the Senator. From day one when we invented this technology we have tried to be very open about our techniques and the data we collect.”


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