The Federal Communications Commission is looking into whether Google's Street View Wi-Fi data collection violated the Communications Act, the agency confirmed Wednesday.

"Last month, Google disclosed that its Street View cars collected passwords, e-mails and other personal information wirelessly from unsuspecting people across the country," Michele Ellison, FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief, said in a statement. "In light of their public disclosure, we can now confirm that the Enforcement Bureau is looking into whether these actions violate the Communications Act. As the agency charged with overseeing the public airwaves, we are committed to ensuring that the consumers affected by this breach of privacy receive a full and fair accounting."

At issue is a May admission from Google that equipment attached to its Street View cars collected data that was traveling over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, known as payload data. At first Google said it did not know if that data included personally identifiable information, but the company admitted last month that it did include entire e-mail addresses, URLs, and passwords.

When it made that announcement, Google also made several changes to its privacy policies: it appointed Alma Whitten to serve as Google's director of privacy across privacy and engineering; it promised to enhance its core privacy training for engineers and other groups; and Google said it will add a new process to its existing review system.

Google on Wednesday pledged to work with the FCC. "We want to delete the data as soon as possible and will continue to work with the authorities to determine the best way forward, as well as to answer their further questions and concerns," the company said in a statement.

Google again apologized for the data collection, saying it was "profoundly sorry."

News of the FCC investigation comes several week after the Federal Trade Commission announced it had closed its investigation into Google's Wi-Fi data collection. The privacy changes Google has put in place in the wake of this discovery are sufficient, the FTC found.

"As soon as we realized what had happened, we stopped collecting all Wi-Fi data from our Street View cars and immediately informed the authorities," Google said. "As we assured the FTC, which has closed its inquiry, we did not want and have never used the payload data in any of our products and services."

Google has received mixed results from the authorities on this issue. In July, the UK Information Commissioner's Office said it was satisfied that the UK data did not include any meaningful personal data about residents in the region. But after Google said its data did include personally identifiable information, the ICO re-opened its investigation, and found earlier this month that Google's data collection was a "significant breach" of privacy.

Canadian privacy officials also expressed concern, though the policies put in place by Google might satisfy their demands.

Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, applauded the FCC investigation. "I commend the Commission for taking action - the potential for this technology to be used for drive-by snooping into people's personal lives is not something to be taken lightly," Markey said in a statement. "I will continue to actively monitor developments in this important area."