back to article Google: Street View spycars did slurp your Wi-Fi

Google has said that its world-roving Street View cars have been collecting information sent over open Wi-Fi networks, contradicting previous assurances by the company. This means that Google may have collected emails and other private information if they traveled over Wi-Fi networks while one of the cars was in range. …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

  1. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Privacy problems

    "Why is everyone need to see this as some evil conspiracy?

    They were geo-tagging MAC addresses, to capture a MAC address you need to capture the whole frame, it seems like their mistake was logging the whole frame instead of just the bytes they needed. It doesn't require a conspiracy to see how this could happen by accident.

    I doubt that these fleeting snapshots of internet traffic made it through the post processing into the useable database.

    "

    I personally don't see a conspiracy. This is still VERY troubling though, it indicates either 1) They are deplying information-collecting software they withoutt even fully checking to see what it REALLY logs (which is what they are claiming.) or 2) They knew what it was logging but did not think it would be a problem since the extra data wasn't being used. This doesn't respect privacy, to respect privacy only the SSID & MAC info would be logged, frames would not be recorded. Not good either way!

    "So they snapshot your BROADCASTED SSID, who's fault is it for broadcasting the SSID?

    So they snapshot the MAC address of your wifi router, SO WHAT!"

    The complaint is not that they recorded ssid & MAC (although some have a problem with that, I'm with you: "So what"), they problem is that they captured MORE data than that. I actually do think open access points should be fair game, but Google should be respecting privacy enough to no t be recording anything it can receive just because it can.

    1. Dave Rickmers
      Stop

      Privacy is not just for the guilty

      Back in the 1980s cell phones and wireless devices around the house were unencrypted analog and easily receivable on scanning receivers sold at stores like Radio Shack. Because of privacy concerns the Electronic Communications Privacy Act was passed and put into law. It specifically says that even though a transmission is not encrypted, it is still illegal to intentionally tune in. There is no test of financial gain nor criminal intent. In the USA it is always illegal.

      Google is corrupt and perverse just like any other large corporation. They should be sabotaged and misled every chance you get.

      1. austerus

        Yeah ... right

        So by your saying free and open wi-fi hotspots are illegal and all those connecting to an open wi-fi anywhere should be jailed, right?

        SSID's are broadcasted exactly for that reason: to be picked up and used for identification of the network.

        Secondly, unprotected networks exist exactly for that ... so that anyone can connect to them without authentication.

        If you want to keep your network private, how hard it is to choose a protection, like WEP or WPA ?

  2. Paul Powell

    Don't see a problem

    I appreciate that there may be laws against this - but I still don't see an issue.

    Using open WiFi is like sending a postcard - also a point to point system. I wouldn't write anything on a postcard that I didn't want a postman to read. For that matter, sending email is exactly the same - it'll probably go over several servers with data being logged. The difference is that Google was purposefully looking from the outside I guess. Still, http traffic is routinely stored and inspected by your ISP, the web host you are browsing to, and any number of analytics companies. People get outraged, but if they only knew the amount of data stored on them this'd pale into insignificance.

    The practical upshot is clear - there are widely implemented, widely available, well documented ways to secure your communications. If you don't use them then you are liable to be listened in on.

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like