Google said that it has since and stopped collecting any Wi-Fi data.

The company's disclosure has prompted regulators in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and South Korea, to launch investigations into the matter.

In the U.S. in June, Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal that he was launching a multistate investigation into "Google's deeply disturbing invasion of personal privacy."

The Federal Trade Commission also launched a similar investigation earlier this year but as a result of what it said was Google's assurances that it would delete any data that it had collected and not use it in any manner.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which in May had asked the FCC for an investigation into Google's Street View data collection, today welcomed the investigation.