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Call For DOJ To Reopen Google Wi-Fi Spying Investigation

Posted by timothy on from the we-were-just-in-the-neighborhood dept.

angry tapir writes "Two U.S. lawmakers have called on the U.S. Department of Justice to reopen its investigation into Google's snooping on Wi-Fi networks in 2010 after recent questions about the company's level of cooperation with federal inquiries. Representatives Frank Pallone Jr., a New Jersey Democrat, and John Barrow, a Georgia Democrat, called on the DOJ to fully investigate Google's actions for potential violations of federal wiretapping laws. In light of a recently released U.S. Federal Communications Commission report on Wi-Fi snooping by Google Street View cars, the DOJ should take a new look at the company's actions, wrote the lawmakers in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder."

1 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Complete failure to understand technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    The only difference between what Google did and what every other PC in existence does with a WiFi radio in it is store it somewhere other than memory.

    Just like it isn't wiretapping to record someone having a conversation standing on the street, I fail to see how its wiretapping to intercept an unencrypted BROADCAST signal.

    Am I violating wiretapping laws because I use an antenna to pick up ATSC broadcasts? Not really much different other than the TV station is smart enough to realize broadcast intentionally and nobody has bothered to tell most ignorant home users what WiFi actually does or how it works (i.e. the signal doesn't stop at some imaginary boundary or at the walls of your house.

    The fact that it keeps coming up with politicians shows we need to stop electing 90 year old lawyers who don't have the slightest idea what they're talking about.

    No, that's NOT the only difference.

    There isn't a PC in existence that's a business that makes money selling private details about people.

    And when such a business sends a whole fleet of cars around with listening devices storing every WiFi packet they encounter, and THEN they lie about it, it sure as hell is a lot different then some random PC ignoring packets its WiFi antenna happens to pick up.

    Please stop spending time under Google exec's desks.