CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
May 15, 2012 – 11:30 p.m.
Consumer Groups Wary of Bill To Limit Wi-Fi Access by Google
By Ambreen Ali, CQ Staff
Some privacy groups appear lukewarm toward Senate Majority Whip
Consumer advocates have railed against Google for using its Street View cars to download information from households’ open Wi-Fi networks. But they warn that criminalizing such actions could have unintended consequences for those who willingly share Internet access and data.
Durbin, D-Ill., said wiretapping laws should be updated to make Google’s actions illegal. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) let the search engine giant off the hook, concluding that nothing bars accessing networks that are not password-protected. Earlier this year, the Justice Department dropped a case against Google for violation of the Wiretap Act (PL 99-508).
The FCC levied a $25,000 fine against Google for impeding its investigation, a decision Durbin said stops “somewhere short of a tap on the wrist.”
A spokesman said that the senator is considering a legislative response. “We’re talking to folks and looking into it,” said Durbin spokesman Max Gleischman.
Watchdog groups typically supportive of measures to protect consumer data have been quiet about Durbin’s announcement. Open Wi-Fi networks are a popular way to share Internet access and information, and changing the law to treat such actions as wiretapping could restrict innovation, said Justin Brookman, director of consumer privacy at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
“I don’t like the idea of companies intercepting and listening, but I have trouble criminalizing it as well. It’s a broadcast signal. It’s not encrypted,” Brookman said. “The question is whether what you legislate today will make sense in 10 years.”
Likewise, Marcia Hofmann, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that legislation regarding Wi-Fi networks has to be carefully written to ensure that “the good uses of Internet interception technologies aren’t made illegal.”
And Art Brodsky, spokesman for the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge, likened obtaining information from open Wi-Fi networks to overhearing a conversation in a subway car.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center is the leading proponent of strengthening the Wiretap Act, which Executive Director Marc Rotenberg interprets as already placing a ban on online snooping. He said there is a clear difference “between accessing the Internet through an open Wi-Fi port, and intercepting and downloading private communications.”
“If courts ultimately determine that this [Google-type] conduct is permissible under the federal wiretap law, then Congress must revise the statute,” Rotenberg said in an e-mail.
Hofmann suggested that Congress take up the issue in a broader update of the Wiretap Act, a course the American Civil Liberties Union also favors. “This emphasizes the need for a more comprehensive, overarching privacy law,” said Chris Calabrese, an ACLU lobbyist who works on technology issues. “If we had an overarching privacy law, we’d be able to stop conduct that violates privacy.”
Many of the interest groups are part of a consumer privacy coalition with industry leaders, including Google, that has urged Congress to update communications privacy law to require warrants for law enforcement to access consumer information.
Consumer Groups Wary of Bill To Limit Wi-Fi Access by Google
Senate Judiciary Chairman