Google loses appeal to dismiss Street View snooping case

Google has lost its appeal to dismiss the Street View snooping case after a federal appeals court affirmed the judge's decision on wrongly collecting people's web activities through their Wi-Fi systems while capturing photographs on streets.

The U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed Google's argument, saying that people have access to unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, but they do not typically intercept, store and decode data transmitted by other devices on the network, News24 reports

The ruling stated that the Google cars with cameras mounted on their roofs went far beyond listening to accessible radio communication.

Google had argued that its mistaken collection of the data, which includes personal emails, user names, passwords, videos and documents, did not break wire-tapping laws because data transmitted over Wi-Fi is a radio communication which is readily accessible to the public.

A Google spokesperson says attorneys for the Internet giant were disappointed in the ninth Circuit's decision and are considering further action.

Google has apologised for the snooping and promised to stop collecting the data, but argued what it did was inadvertent and not illegal.