Packet-Sniffing Laws Murky as Open Wi-Fi Proliferates

There's a growing legal uncertainty about privacy on open Wi-Fi networks, kicked off by Google's admission its Street View cars intercepted data on unsecured Wi-Fi networks in neighborhoods across the globe.

Google, in response to government inquiries and lawsuits, claims it is lawful to use packet-sniffing tools readily available on the Internet to spy on and download payload data from others using the same open Wi-Fi access point. "We believe it does not violate U.S. law to collect payload data from networks that are configured to be openly accessible (i.e., not secured by encryption and thus accessible by any user's device). We emphasize that being lawful and being the right thing to do are two different things, and that collecting payload data was a mistake for which we are profoundly sorry," Google wrote Congress. It's not considered felony wiretapping "to intercept or access an electronic communication made through an electronic communication system that is configured to that such electronic communication is readily accessible to the general public," according to the text of the federal wiretapping statute. Password protected — encrypted Wi-Fi networks — are not considered "readily accessible," Google maintains.