Public WiFi Pcaps

[Bryan Bickford <bryan () unhwildhats com>]

Greetings,

I am starting some wifi research and had questions about the legality of
listening to unencrypted, public wifi data and publishing subsequent
research.

> From what I understand, the wiretap act prohibits listening to
communications that were not configured to be readily accessible to the
general public. Specifically:

...permits "any person" to intercept an electronic communication made
through a system "that is configured so that . . . [the] communication is
readily accessible to the general public."

I have seen debates about whether an unencrypted access point (e.g.
starbucks) qualifies under this exception. Is there any concrete legal
precedent that defines this either way?

The only one I can think of is the google street view case, and they lost.
http://epic.org/privacy/streetview/

> From a technical viewpoint, you are just reading unencrypted radio waves. I
see no technical reason that it's any different than listening to an FM
radio station.

Anyone else have more insight/experience?

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