A federal judge has declined to dismiss charges against Google that it allegedly violated the Federal Wiretap Act when it collected personal data from Wi-Fi networks.
U.S. District Court Judge James Ware on Wednesday tossed accusations that Google’s Street View vehicles broke several states’ laws when they harvested usernames, passwords, and e-mail from consumers’ and businesses’ wireless networks, but allowed the claim that the company violated federal law to continue.
Google’s Street View vehicles began cruising American roads in 2007 as part of the company’s mapping program. Along with snapping photographs of each street and collecting GPS data, the vehicles also mapped the location of Wi-Fi networks to build a database that could be accessed by mobile devices to determine users’ whereabouts.
Google acknowledged the privacy problem in May 2010, but said collection of personal data from Wi-Fi hotspots had been inadvertent. The company blamed an unnamed engineer for adding code to the Wi-Fi location detection software.
Although Google initially said that the packet sniffer grabbed only data fragments, it later acknowledged that the vehicles had harvested complete usernames and passwords from unprotected wireless networks, as well as emails.
To arrive at his ruling, Ware threaded his way though years of legislative history of federal privacy laws related to over-the-air communications, and even went to the Oxford English Dictionary in an attempt to define “radio communications.”
He concluded that the exemptions built into the Federal Wiretap Act did not apply to Google’s snooping.
“The Court finds that Plaintiffs plead facts sufficient to state a claim for violation of the Wiretap Act,” Ware wrote in his ruling. “Defendant’s contention that Plaintiffs fail to state a claim for violation of the Wiretap Act, as Plaintiffs plead that their networks were ‘open’ and ‘unencrypted,’ is misplaced.”
Jim Dempsey, the vice president for public policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a Washington D.C.-based advocacy organization, said that intercepting data communications from a Wi-Fi network, even one unsecured with a password, “should certainly be illegal.”
But he also argued that Congress needed to clarify the law. “It’s certainly far preferably to clarify the statute legislatively,” Dempsey told Computerworld on Friday, rather than require judges like Ware to parse the ambiguous and outdated language of the 25-year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). “But whichever way this case comes out, clarifying the statute on this particular point is not going to be easy.”
Google said it was considering its next move.
“We believe these claims are without merit and that the Court should have dismissed the Wiretap claim just as it dismissed the plaintiffs’ other claims,” a Google representative said in an emailed statement today. “We’re still evaluating our options at this preliminary stage.”
However, a trade group co-sponsored by Microsoft, eBay, Intel, Oracle and others applauded Ware’s ruling.
“Google has been a bad actor in our industry when it comes to privacy,” Jonathan Zuck, the president of the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), said by email Thursday. “We have long been aware of the negative impact Google has had on consumers’ faith in the security of their online privacy. It is our hope that the courts continue to treat the Wi-Spy matter seriously so consumer confidence may be restored.”
“Wi-Spy” is the name some, including ACT, have pinned on the Street View debacle.
ACT has regularly voiced anti-Google opinions when the search giant has been in legal hot water. Last week, for example, the group said it supported the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) investigation into possible antitrust violations by Google, saying, “Government intervention in the case of Google is what is best for the technology space” and calling the Microsoft rival’s behavior “reckless.”
Ironically, the ACT was a very vocal backer of Microsoft when the company was accused by European Union antitrust regulators of abusing its monopoly position.
Ware also dismissed the plaintiffs’ charges that Google violated California business practice laws, but gave the plaintiffs until Aug. 1 to amend their complaint.
The demand by the 22 plaintiffs that their lawsuit be granted class-action status is still pending.
“This is just another in a whole long series of cases that, case after case, show that the ECPA is a complicated statute that’s very hard to understand,” said Dempsey of the CDT. “Congress needs to respond.”
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at
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Read more about privacy in Computerworld’s Privacy Topic Center.
A law change has made it legal to install secret cameras to spy on workers, and companies are employing private detectives to do so.
But Wellington International Airport has fallen foul of the Employment Relations Authority for using a private investigator to install cameras to spy on the sexual activities of a manager before the law was changed.
The airport recordings caught duty manager Dieter Ravnjak engaged in “sexual activity” with a woman in an emergency management room and he was dismissed for serious misconduct.
The cameras were installed by private investigator Cedric Hardiman, who also managed the airport’s taxi and parking facilities.
At the time, the Private Investigators and Security Guards Act prohibited investigators from making recordings without the consent of the person recorded – in effect banning secret recordings.
Relying on this, Ravnjak appealed to the ERA, which has thrown out the evidence, calling it “fruit of the poisonous tree”. It is understood Hardiman is being investigated for violating the act – unluckily for him, his indiscretion was a year too early.
A law change that came into effect on April 1 has removed that part of the law and it is now legal for private investigators to make recordings.
New Zealand Institute of Professional Investigators chairman Ron McQuilter said he did not know of a single person prosecuted for breaching the 1974 act and now Hardiman was in trouble after the section he violated had been removed.
McQuilter said even though the law preventing recordings had been lifted, there were still restrictions relating to filming people within their private residence. “It’s taken a restraint off. What it allows us to do is give best evidence.”
In the past, investigators had to give the evidence themselves, which often turned into questioning the investigator’s character, he said.
The law change allowed the evidence to speak for itself.
“Private investigators only seek to determine the facts.”
In another recent case, Coca-Cola Amatil used a private detective to track employee Keith Hooper on his lunch break. He had worked at the Christchurch bottling plant since 1992. Hooper was observed smoking cannabis in a park in September 2009 but was not drug-tested until seven months later, under the “reasonable suspicion” clause in his contract.
He was found to have 20 times the allowed amount in his system and was dismissed. The ERA said it was “troubled” at the interval between detection and testing but upheld the decision to sack him.
New Zealand Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said using a private investigator and holding on to evidence “isn’t the way to run a good business and include staff”. Kelly said the employer should raise issues with employees as they occurred so they had a chance to defend themselves.
Coca-Cola Amatil managing director George Adams said the company had “zero tolerance for consumption of drugs or alcohol during work hours”.
“We will use whatever lawful methods that are available to us as a responsible employer to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our employees.”
CAIRO – A state security court on Thursday sentenced an Egyptian businessman to 25 years in prison for spying for Israel, court officials said.
The sentencing of Tareq Hassan, who owns an export-import firm, followed last week’s arrest in Cairo of a dual Israeli-U.S. national for allegedly spying for Israel. Ilan Grapel was arrested on suspicion of sedition and inciting Egyptians to clash with the country’s military leadership.
Egyptian prosecutors said he was a Mossad agent. His family, however, maintains he was spending the summer in Cairo as an intern at a legal aid group. Israel also denies the 27-year-old Grapel is a spy.
On Thursday, presiding judge Gamaleddin Rushdy also sentenced two Israeli citizens in absentia to 25 years in jail. The two were said by Egyptian prosecutors to be Mossad agents.
Hassan was arrested in August and charged four months later, along with the two Israelis, for attempting to identify telecommunications workers in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon who would be willing to spy for Israel. He was also alleged to have passed intelligence gathered by an Israeli agent in Syria to the Israelis.
The prosecutors said he provided intelligence to Israel in exchange for cash.
The court officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said he “preferred not to make comments as long as American-Israeli backpacker Ilan Grapel is still under detention in Cairo.”
Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979 but their relationship has been cool. Often, relations between the two Middle Eastern neighbors has become tense over what Cairo sees as Israel’s unwillingness to negotiate in good faith with the Palestinians and over similar spy cases.
Cuyahoga County prosecutors charge that a man who’s known in the local entertainment world was entertaining himself in illegal ways that included child pornography.
Steven Barrett has entered a not guilty plea to the charges. Prosecutors say he faces 16 counts related to child pornography and more charges that he spied on two women on different occasions in the shower of his Euclid home.
Hidden Camera Exposed at YMCA
“He had put together a platform behind the shower,” says Colleen Reali, an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor. “And he had drilled a peep hole in the bathtub and was watching them and videotaping them while they showered.”
The women found each other through a mutual friend, and went to police together. Authorities executed a search warrant and say they found images of child porn on Barrett’s computer.
Barrett is well-known in the local music and film community. His work reportedly includes helping to book bands and photograph shows.
Prosecutors say Barrett was only viewing images of child porn, and did not create any of the images.
When asked by Fox 8 News if he would like to say anything in his own defense, Barrett said, “I’m not at liberty to discuss the case.”
Barrett referred Fox 8 News to his attorney, whose office says he is out of town on vacation.
Barrett is due in court next week. If convicted on all counts, he could face over a 100 years in prison.
An Australian citizen has faced an Israeli court charged with spying for Hamas, the Islamist group which rules the Gaza Strip.
Eyad Abuarga was arrested along with his wife when he arrived at Tel Aviv airport in March, and has been in custody ever since.
Israeli intelligence officials allege the electronics engineer was recruited by Hamas while living in Saudi Arabia, and received weapons training in Syria before making a trip to Israel.
They accuse him of trying to enter Israel on his Australian passport in order to conduct spy operations.
Hamas is banned in Israel.
In court, the 46-year-old said he was an innocent Australian tourist and denied ever having trained in Syria.
A detailed indictment alleges he had links to the Palestinian struggle since the 1980s, but that from around 2007, he began attending a number of secretive meetings with Hamas members.
The indictment also claims he was asked to help with encoding, that he supplied photographic equipment which could find and guide missiles, and that he trained with Hamas in Syria.
“The accused was taken to a room with prayer rugs where he met four others,” the indictment says.
“After a while they went out and began to train, shooting a pistol and a rifle at different targets. After they finished he was driven back to Damascus. He was blindfolded some of the way.”
The indictment is so detailed as to describe the colours of the car he travelled in and blindfold he was given.
His lawyer, Leah Tzemel, told AM all the evidence comes from interviews with her client which has not been corroborated with outside sources.
Abuarga is a Palestinian refugee who grew up on the Arabian Gulf but later moved to Australia and became an Australian citizen.
As he waited for the hearing to begin, Abuarga told the media at the court near Tel Aviv he had never trained in Syria.
“I’d like to say loud and clear that I’m not a member of Hamas, never was and never will, or any other group,” he said.
Abuarga had been living in Saudi Arabia, until he was arrested on arrival at Ben Gurion Airport earlier this year.
He says he was visiting Israel for a holiday.
“I am an Australian tourist, who came to this country with my wife to celebrate our 25th anniversary of our marriage, and ended up in jail,” he said.
Abuarga’s wife and children have now returned to Australia.
He told the media he had been treated well while in jail.
But his lawyer says if an acceptable plea bargain is not reached, she will release more information about the facts of his interrogation.
The matter has been adjourned for a fortnight.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government says consular officials have been providing extensive help to Abuarga.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs says officials have visited the man in prison seven times and have also provided extensive help to his family.
