Posted on 09/25/2014 6:21:23 AM PDT by servo1969
The [StreetView] cars had vacuumed up Wi-Fi e-mail messages, user passwords, and other communications from 2007 to 2010. With a consolidated class-action lawsuit seeking up to $10,000 for each affected private Wi-Fi user captured by Google, lawyers are about to go national with billions of dollars of claims for potential damages to virtually every U.S. e-mail user.
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Under federal law, it is illegal and subject to up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for any third party to intercept any telephonic or electronic communication between other individuals. However, if one of the parties to the conversation records or consents to the recording, the interception of the communication is generally not barred under federal law and is also permissible under many state laws. But at least 11 states criminally prohibit recording any conversation, regardless of consent.
Google has vigorously fought the case unsuccessfully through the District Court, Court of Appeals, and U.S. Supreme Court to block the litigation since 2010. Google tried and failed to convince a trial judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals panel in San Francisco that it was legal to intercept the Wi-Fi networks, because open Wi-Fi networks are the equivalent to AM/FM radio transmissions.
With the Supreme Court denial, legal action shifted back to a Federal Judge in Mountain View, California, where, last week, lawyers for the 22 people named in the suit, “Google Street View Electronic Communications Litigation” won a discovery phase ruling that the Silicon Valley-based company must give access and work cooperatively with opposing lawyers to determine what’s on the hard drives.
If any of the litigants can pinpoint any of their personal data in the massive cache of communications captured from private Wi-Fi networks by Street View, their lawyers will have established Google’s wiretapping liability.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
sign me up.
It would occur to me that without a search warrant, the NSA owes all of us $10,000 per e-mail, password and text message they’ve scooped up.
No wonder they don’t want anyone to know. National security my ass.
I’m in...ammo ain’t cheap.
Wouldn’t mind that considering they pretty much have destroyed the music industry through Youtube. Any band that releases an album today a day later it’s up on Youtube for anybody to download, and the RIAA sits on its hands. I do not get that at all, Youtube owned by Google a multi-billion dollar company you would think they would be buried in lawsuits especially considering they are making money off these bands in ad revenue.
Because class action lawsuit lawyers like the biggest possible pile of cash (they take 50%).
When they engineering the lawsuit against Sony and others for price-fixing CDs at a high price point (illegal collusion), they settled out of courts. Even states got behind it. The lawyers got the cash and the states got crappy cut-out CDs.
Shakespeare had the right idea.
“Google tried and failed to convince a trial judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals panel in San Francisco that it was legal to intercept the Wi-Fi networks, because open Wi-Fi networks are the equivalent to AM/FM radio transmissions.”
What an excuse. “AM/FM radio transmissions” are meant to be
intercepted by the public.
Alan Butler,“It has to be the biggest wiretap case in U.S. history.”
You know Mr.ButLer is an Obama supporter when he intentionally
overlooks the real “biggest wiretap case in U.S. history.”
Obamas use of the NSA to spy on his political oponents.
Ditto me that....Google can afford it.
Unless this ends up differently than most other similar litigation, if it appears likely that there is a real chance that the litigation will succeed, Google will settle with the plaintiffs’ lawyers for a few hundreds of millions each, and the actual plaintiffs will receive a coupon for a 5% discount on a pack of chewing gum.
Where do I get the release to sign, and when do they send me my $10K? < /sarc >
Me too.
I’m in.
Is that you, James Hetfield?
Every industry in the USA seems to have a life-cycle which starts at zero regulation, rapid growth, huge innovation, and huge wealth production. It then goes to the start of increasing government regulation, and various interest groups (deserved or not) going after that wealth, with slower growth and less innovation. The next stage is stagnation and decline.
The first phase is about 25 years. Google is entering it now.
Bottom line - consider everything you do on LAN (Ethernet wire or WiFi), cell phone, Internet, Facebook (especially the apps), LinkedIn, etc. as public and out there.
When Google did StreetView, we should have been screaming.
In.... Google has pissed me off more than once with their shenanigans...
Be happy to bankrupt google. They are evil.
Lawyers who filed class action get $9,990 out of every $10,000, you’ll be lucky to see $10.
Google has wi-fi interception receivers/antennas mounted on vehicles to intercept others communications with the software that interprets that data?
first I heard of this.
What is their claimed legitimate purpose for this?
Exactly. Or more ironically, a coupon for free or discounted Google services - just like when you complain about a crappy product and the company tries to appease you with more crappy product.
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