Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has denied he is waging a vendetta against Google after the Government called in federal police to investigate the internet giant over alleged privacy breaches.

Senator Conroy has been at loggerheads with Google, last month calling the company "creepy" and accusing it of committing the "single greatest breach in the history of privacy" when it collected information from wireless networks.

But he was at pains today to point out the Australian Federal Police investigation was initiated not by him, but by Attorney-General Robert McClelland after his office received complaints from the public.

Senator Conroy denies he is attacking Google because of its concerns about the Government's plans for an internet filter.

"Not in the slightest. I raised these concerns about these giant companies - Google, Facebook and others - who don't seem to believe the Australian laws should apply to them," he said.

"They say, 'hey, we are based in the US, we don't care what the European Union says, we don't care what individual jurisdictions in Europe say and we don't care what the Australian Government says'."

Information about wi-fi networks is used by many companies, including mobile telephone giant Nokia, to improve the performance of GPS on mobile devices and provide a more accurate location, particularly in cities where satellite signals can be blocked by tall buildings.

Google was taking photos for its Street View program, which shows 360-degree views of most streets on Google Maps.

However Google was criticised for collecting too much information, including fragments of personal data.

Senator Conroy says Google may have breached the Telecommunications Intercept Act and that there is a growing list of countries that share his concerns.

"Countries, including Canada and 10 in Europe, wrote to Google about a month ago expressing their concern saying you must respect our privacy laws," he said.

"It could potentially be a breach of the Telecommunications Intercept Act and that is why the police will be seeking information from Google.

"They will be asking to know what has gone on and why it has gone on."

Google senior vice president Alan Eustace said on the company's official blog that the software code responsible for collecting the data was used by mistake, and that all Street View cars were grounded when the mistake was discovered.

Google has been a critic of the Government's internet filter, saying moves its to block pornography and other banned material could affect user speeds and accidentally filter legitimate content.

Justified

Electronic Frontiers Australia says the AFP investigation is warranted.

Spokesman Geordie Guy says Google may have broken the law.

"Google set about to collect information that was publicly visible about people's wireless internet connections and they were going to use that as part of some of their products which use what is called geolocation, for showing you where you are," he said.

"They only intended to collect some very specific information but because the software they were using had been written for another purpose, they accidentally collected information from inside people's wireless networks and that might include, say, email information or information about the web pages people were viewing.

"It seems they probably needed to be paying a little bit more attention, a little more due diligence and as a result of their carelessness, they may have broken the law."

Dr Mark Gregory, an information technology expert from RMIT University, says similar investigations are well advanced in Europe.

"Where Google has done the same thing [it] has recently stated they will hand all of the information that was collected... over to the federal authorities in those countries to ensure Google did not retain the information collected," he said.

"Now whether or not the same thing would happen here if a request was made is yet to be determined. However, the concern caused worldwide by this action carried out by Google has been considerable."

Google says the situation that has arisen in Australia was a mistake and that it will answer any questions investigators may have.