Starbucks is rolling out free, unsecured Wi-Fi access at about 7,000 coffee shops across the United States beginning July 1. But will there be packet-sniffing with your latte?
The Seattle-based coffee concern's move to lure customers with free internet comes amid a growing legal uncertainty about privacy on open Wi-Fi networks, kicked off by Google's admission its Street View cars intercepted data on unsecured Wi-Fi networks in neighborhoods across the globe.
Google, in response to government inquiries and lawsuits, claims it is lawful to use packet-sniffing tools readily available on the internet to spy on and download payload data from others using the same open Wi-Fi access point.
“We believe it does not violate U.S. law to collect payload data from networks that are configured to be openly accessible (.pdf) (i.e., not secured by encryption and thus accessible by any user's device). We emphasize that being lawful and being the right thing to do are two different things, and that collecting payload data was a mistake for which we are profoundly sorry,” Google wrote Congress.
It's not considered felony wiretapping “to intercept or access an electronic communication made through an electronic communication system that is configured to that such electronic communication is readily accessible to the general public,” according to the text of the federal wiretapping statute. Password protected — encrypted Wi-Fi networks — are not considered “readily accessible,” Google maintains.
That's a position one former Justice Department prosecutor backs, although Google may have theoretically violated the rarely prosecuted Pen Register and Trap and Trap and Traces Device Act.
There's no way to say how many unsecured hot spots dot the United States. McDonald's announced in January that it would provide unsecured Wi-Fi access in 11,000 restaurants, and more businesses are expected to follow.
So far, government regulators aren't sure whether Google committed any legal wrongdoing. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced Monday that as many as 30 attorneys general were examining the lawfulness of Google's actions. But Blumenthal never said the Mountain View, California, internet giant's activities were unlawful, going so far as to say they were “potentially impermissible.”
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