Court Says Tracking Web Histories Can Violate Wiretap Act
http://www.wired.com/2015/11/court-says-tracking-web-histories-can-violate-wiretap-act/
In the ruling, the appeals court agreed with a lower court,
which dismissed the plaintiffs' claims that Google and the other
defendants had violated laws like the Wiretap Act, the Stored
Communications Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by
collecting users' web browsing information. (Though the ruling
does reverse the dismissal of a different claim that the
defendants violated the California constitution, which will now
proceed in the lawsuit.) But despite those decisions and perhaps
more importantly, the court was careful to make another point:
That merely tracking the URLs someone visits can constitute
collecting the contents of their communications, and that doing
so without a warrant can violate the Wiretap Act. And that's an
opinion that will apply not just to Google, but to the Justice
Department ... In their ruling, the panel of three appellate
judges found that Google and its co-defendants hadn't violated
the Wiretap Act because they were a "party" to the
communications rather than a third-party eavesdropper--the users
were visiting their websites when the cookies were installed.
But the judges took special pains to make clear that the
defendants hadn't been let off because their cookie-blocking
circumvention technique was only collecting metadata from users,
rather than the content of their communications.
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently doing so.
My opinions expressed here are mine alone.
_______________________________________________
pfir mailing list
http://lists.pfir.org/mailman/listinfo/pfir
