If your company's road warriors like to duck into Starbucks or McDonalds to get a little work done online, make sure they're not sending any unprotected company data over the stores' Wi-Fi systems. As more retailers offer free wireless Internet access to customers, it is unclear whether it's illegal for third parties to use Wi-Fi access points to download payload data from them.

This question is in the spotlight now as Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) tries to defend its collection of data from Wi-Fi networks by its Street View vehicles roaming the world, writes David Kravets in an article at Wired. Google maintains that, while it wasn't the "right thing to do," it was not illegal to use packet-sniffing technology to gather payload data from open Wi-Fi networks.

Meanwhile, dozens of state attorneys general are trying to determine for themselves the legality of Google's activities. European regulators, who have said Google may have collected email content as well as payload data, are also investigating.

For more:
- see David Kravets' article at Wired

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