Key Legal Decision Affecting Google Hinges on a Definition
April 27, 2011
Wired reports that the “Google Wi-Fi Judge Asks if Packet Sniffing is Spying.” Yet more evidence that our legislative system simply cannot keep up with technology. Wired states:
At the center of the legal flap is whether Google breached the Wiretap Act. Judge Ware, however, suggested the answer to the far-reaching privacy dilemma lies in an unanswered question. He has asked each side to define ‘radio communication’ as it applies to the Wiretap Act, and wants to know whether home Wi-Fi networks are ‘radio communications’ under the Wiretap Act.
Google’s answer, of course, is yes. If Wi-Fi networks are like radio stations and radio communications bands, they are considered “readily accessible” and not covered by the antiquated Act.
The plaintiffs, however, beg to differ. They say that just because information is airborne for a few seconds as it’s relayed from one computer to another does not turn that info into a radio broadcast.
Apparently, Google didn’t even realize its Street View mapping cars were privy to the data in question, and it has suspended those operations since German authorities started looking into the issue.
We don’t know the answer to this tough question, but if the decision goes against Google, it will create more potholes for Google’s all-seeing eye and its inadvertent sucking down of Wi-Fi data. With disclosures about Google’s Android phoning home user location data, the resolution of this issue will have significant consequences. Apologizing may not be enough this time.
Cynthia Murrell April 27, 2011
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