Judge says Google can be held liable in Street View wi-fi security debacle

13 years, 5 months ago - 5 July 2011

It's a good thing for Google that have all of the money in the world. A federal judge has announced that the Silicon Valley giant can be sued for any damages related to the data grabbed by its Street View cars.

As you may recall, earlier this year, it was determined that when the mapping machines passed by areas with unsecured WiFi networks, the hardware mounted on top of the roofs was inadvertently able to snag passwords, emails and a whole host of other information that was unknowingly ripe for the picking.

According to Wired, Google is going on the defensive and claims that unsecured WiFi networks are akin to radio communications. Anyone can grab a radio signal out there, and Google believes grabbing onto an open network is similar. Google has also stated that it was initially unaware of the data being snatched up by its roving fleet.

The implications from this case could prove very interesting for both Google and anyone using an unsecured WiFi network.