MP calls for inquiry into Google's collection of private data

Wants government to balance innovation on the internet against individuals' right to privacy

Google has collected Wi-Fi connectivity data relating to millions of homes

The Information Commissioner faces a Commons call for an inquiry into internet company intrusions into personal privacy following Google's collection of data on private Wi-Fi connections.

Tory MP Robert Halfon called for the investigation in a second Commons motion on the issue after securing the backing of 18 MPs for his first, which protested over the collection of wireless internet connectivity data involving "millions" of private homes during its mapping operation.

It expresses "further concern that the firm may have failed to disclose that it was building a massive database of Wi-Fi networks across the UK without people's consent".

The motion, which is not debatable in its present form but signifies the extent of backbench MPs' concerns, "calls on the coalition government to balance innovation on the internet against individuals' right to privacy and the new threat of a surveillance society".

Halfon, who stresses he is a Google fan using its services in preference to House of Commons systems in his Commons and constituency offices, said: "I am incredibly worried not just about Google but about BT's reported trawling through people's Facebook comments to identify anyone making negative comments about them.

"There is a serious problem about the geniuses of this internet technology over-stretching themselves and infringing personal liberty."

He said the inquiry was needed to establish where the balance should lie and indicated he is pressing for a full-scale Commons debate on what he sees as " the new threat of a surveillance society" following the withdrawal of ID cards.