Supreme Court rejects appeal by Google over Street View data collection

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-google-supreme-court-20140630-story.html

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear an appeal by Google over whether it violated federal wiretapping law when its Street View mapping cars collected consumers' personal data.

That leaves intact a federal appeals court ruling that the U.S. Wiretap Act protects the privacy of information on unencrypted in-home Wi-Fi networks and means Google can face lawsuits over the matter, according to a Bloomberg report.

The issue stems from Google's Street View, a comprehensive mapping program that provides images of areas around the world. Google has admitted that its camera-equipped Street View cars inadvertently captured emails, passwords and other data from unprotected wireless networks as they drove by.

In a statement, a Google spokesman said the Mountain View, Calif., company was disappointed that the Supreme Court had declined to hear the case.