“As early as 2007 and 2008, therefore, Street View team members had wide access to Engineers Doe’s Wi-Fi data collection design document and code, which revealed his plan to collect payload data. One Google engineer reviewed the code line by line to remove syntax errors and bugs, and another modified the code. Five engineers pushed the code into Street View cars, and another drafted code to extract information from the Wi-Fi data those cars were collecting. Engineer Doe specifically told two engineers working on the project, including a senior manager, about collecting payload data. Nevertheless, managers of the Street View project and other Google employees who worked on Street View have uniformly asserted in declarations and interviews  that they did not learn the Street View cars were collecting payload data until April or May 2010.”

Google is saying it didn’t give permission for the payload data gathering. It holds the same ground in internationally.

And the FCC even admits what Google did may not be illegal. “The Wiretap Act provides, ‘It shall not be unlawful under this chapter or chapter 121 of this title for any person to intercept or access an electronic communication made through an electronic communication system that is configured so that such electronic communication is readily accessible to the general public,’” its report reads.

Even so, as PCWorld reported last week, for impeding the agency's investigation – a pittance considering the company is worth $200 billion.

“While we disagree with some of the statements made in the document, we agree with the FCC’s conclusion that we did not break the law,” a Google spokesperson told over e-mail. “We hope that we can now put this matter behind us.”