• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, July 12, 2011

U.S. District Court Judge James Ware in San Jose, Calif. recently issued a groundbreaking ruling against Google in a lawsuit stemming from the Street View WiFi snooping scandal. Ware rejected Google's argument that its activities were lawful because the transmissions it intercepted were not password-protected.

Now, in a rare move, Google is attempting to appeal Ware's ruling before the case proceeds any further. The company argues that the wiretap law, which dates to 1986 -- well before the era of WiFi networks -- needs to be interpreted by an appellate court. "Regardless of the outcome on appeal, appellate guidance on the central legal question at issue will allow the parties to litigate this matter without having to worry that a subsequent ruling from the Ninth Circuit might put them back at square one," the company argues in a motion filed late last week.

Google has apologized for the intercepts and has consistently said that it intends to destroy the data it gathered. But the company also takes the position that the wiretap law doesn't ban interceptions of "publicly accessible" communications. The company says that because its Street View cars only picked up transmissions that weren't password-protected, the lawsuit should be dismissed.

On the other hand, the consumers who are suing -- as well as privacy advocates like the Electronic Privacy Information Center -- say that the WiFi networks were not publicly accessible, in part because interpreting them requires special software.

Regardless of the legalities, one thing is clear: the revelations about the Street View snooping created a public relations debacle for Google. Aside from this lawsuit, Google also is facing inquiries by regulators and state attorneys general.