The New York Times late Monday published a story revealing what the paper says is the identity of the single engineer that Google has repeatedly blamed for the technology that the company used to capture web surfers’ personal histories and other data over open WiFi connections using its Street View cars over a period of time between May 2007 and May 2010.
Citing a “former state prosecutor” who was part of a state investiagtion into Google over the WiFi snooping case, the Times ID’s the engineer as one Marius Milner, a self-described “hacker,” who is also the creator of NetStumbler, a wireless network detection program for Windows PCs. According to his LinkedIn page, which has since been locked, Milner has worked at Google’s YouTube service since 2008.
One engineer identified as “Engineer Doe,” featured prominently in the Federal Communciations Commission’s investigation into the Google StreetView WiFi snooping case, but was not formally indetified due to the fact that he or she invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to testify on the record about the practice. The FCC eventually concluded Google had not broken any laws but fined Google $25,000 for “deliberately” impeding and delaying the investigation.
