Google’s data collection in Street View project in violation of wire tap law court rules

A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that Google violated federal wire tap laws, with its sweeping data collection including such data such as passwords and email from internet users, for its Street View photo mapping . Users were not aware of the data collection by the company.

In a decision that would allow a privacy lawsuit against the internet search giant, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals turned down Google's argument that such data collection was permitted under exceptions to the federal Wiretap Act, a law that has been on the books for long and which was updated in the mid-1980s.

Judge Jay Bybee wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel, that ''surely Congress did not intend to condone such an intrusive and unwarranted invasion of privacy when it enacted the Wiretap Act.

The judgment comes as the latest setback for the neighborhood mapping project, which has been in the cross hair of privacy groups for the company's broad collection of personal information from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. The decision upholds a similar ruling by a federal two years ago and advances a number of class action lawsuits.

Google has already apologised for the data collection and settled a parallel case over the project brought by 38 states, including California.

The internet giant also agreed to pay a $7-million fine and take steps to avoid continued privacy violations, even as it continued to fight the private lawsuits, maintaining the collection, was however, permissible under the wiretap law.