Google loses appeal in Street View privacy case

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Google loses appeal in Street View privacy case

By Jonathan Stempel
Tue Sep 10, 2013 4:48pm EDT

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court rejected Google Inc's bid to dismiss a lawsuit accusing it of violating federal wiretap law when its accidentally collected emails and other personal data while building its popular Street View program.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to exempt Google from liability under the federal Wiretap Act for having inadvertently intercepted emails, user names, passwords and other data from private Wi-Fi networks to create Street View, which provides panoramic views of city streets.

"It's a landmark decision that affirms the privacy of electronic communications for wireless networks," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C.

"Many Internet users depend on wireless networks to connect devices in their homes, such as printers and laptops, and companies should not be snooping on their communications or collecting private data."

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/10/us-google-streetview-lawsuit-idUSBRE98913D20130910

[Skinner]

1. How in the heck does someone "inadvertently"...

....intercept emails, user names, passwords and other data from private Wi-Fi networks?

Seems like an unlikely thing to do inadvertently.

[NV Whino]

2. Oh come on

NSA does it all the time. You know they didn't really mean to capture all those e-mails.