Judge rules Google Street View wi-fi sniffing subject to Wiretap Act

Judge: Google Can Be Sued for Wiretapping in Street View Debacle [Wired: Threat Level]

Last year, Google got into hot water when it was revealed that its Street View fleet surreptitiously downloaded content from open wi-fi networks around the U.S. While Google initially claimed that its actions were designed to create location data for public wi-fi networks, it later admitted that it had downloaded over 600 GB of data from wireless networks with code that was planted by a company engineer without proper approval to do so.

Now, in a civil action filed by plaintiffs against Google Street View activities, a federal district judge in California has ruled that Google can be held liable for damages under the Wiretap Act. Judge James Ware ruled that even though the networks were not transmitting data that was encrypted, that the data was not open to the general public based on the fact that Google used packet sniffing technology Google to download. 

The case could set a significant prescendent when it comes to open wi-fi networks and those that might seek to intercept transmissions over those networks. Google has not yet responded to the judge's ruling in the case. 

Comments

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[Aaron B]

I would think that this also says something as a reminder to people who have/operate/manage/ect a wireless network. You should be securing it with some sort of encryption, otherwise you are just leaving yourself open for something much worse than Google to come in and simply create a map of open hot spots. As far as what they did falling under the Wiretap Act, I could not agree more. Then again if I connect to an 'open' network, I dont do anything that I would want anyone to see let alone contain personal and private information. With all the hackers out there and all of the security issues that we have seen this year with networks, you would think that everyone would be more careful with what they do online and with the networks that are out there. Which only leads my thoughts back to securing your wireless networks, but that is my opinion.