Liz Gannes

Recent Posts by Liz Gannes

Wi-Fi Sniffing Probably Qualifies as Wiretapping, Appeals Court Tells Google

Google today lost an appeal of its long-running “Wi-Spy” case, in which its Street View cars slurped up data from open Wi-Fi networks. But even some people unaffiliated with the company — which was wrong, very wrong in the first place and has admitted as such — are unhappy with the ruling, as it judged open Wi-Fi networks not to be a “radio communication” or “readily accessible to the general public,” so therefore they fall under the U.S. Wiretap Act. Google had sought to dismiss wiretap claims as part of a broader class action suit, and a spokesperson said the company is considering its next steps.

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

The problem with the Billionaire Savior phase of the newspaper collapse has always been that billionaires don’t tend to like the kind of authority-questioning journalism that upsets the status quo.

— Ryan Chittum, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review about the promise of Pierre Omidyar’s new media venture with Glenn Greenwald