Oregon Public Broadcasting

As Google admits collecting data from wireless networks around the world, lawyers in the Pacific Northwest have filed a class action lawsuit. Kristian Foden-Vencil reports.

Oregonian Vicki Van Valin and Washingtonian Neil Mertz are kicking-off the suit.

They know their wireless information was picked up when a Google van drove by their homes taking pictures. What they don't know is what was gathered.

Portland lawyer Brooks Cooper says it could be anything from the web page they were on at the time, to an unencrypted password they were sending.

Brooks Cooper: "The next step, because Google has said in a variety of public fora, that it was planning on deleting all of the data it had stored, the next step was that the court to enter a restraining order simply saying: don't change the data, don't alter it, don't delete it until we've had a chance to examine this."

The legality of gathering and storing electronic information as it flies through public space is questionable.

At a conference, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, said the company quote 'screwed-up' and is putting more internal controls in place.

Authorities in German, Italy and Spain have said they're investigating the company's data collection.