Google admits wi-fi data collection blunder

It's all about money, information give you data and in turn they can find out a lot about a person/area/demographic and target their business in that area to make the most profit.

I am not an IT expert but how can it be a blunder, how do you unintentionally collect data? You have to set it up in the first place do you not?
 
Depends if they set it up themselves and not a third party contractor. I would imagine it's some third party setup that has done it, which is why they need to investigate how it happened.
 
How can they possibly use the word "blunder"?

Google said the problem dated back to 2006 when "an engineer working on an experimental wi-fi project wrote a piece of code that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast wi-fi data".

That code was included in the software the Street View cars used and "quite simply, it was a mistake", said Mr Eustace.
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Did they accidentally kit the Google Maps car out with a high gain antenna and sniffing software? I mean easily done after all!

Google knew what they were doing, it probably cost them a lot of money to collect all the images for Street View so why not kill two birds with one stone ahead of time. Wait for the opportunity to arise then use the data you secretly collected previously, be that a open wifi mesh network or some means to sell security to the unsecured masses.

I'd like to know who blew the whistle, clearly someone on the Street View project doesn't agree with Google's business model. I doubt very much that Google's conscience brought this to the surface.
 
Agreed. However, if the police catch you sitting outside someone's house with a laptop they tend to take a rather dim view. However it seems to be OK if you do a whole country, then call it a blunder.
 
Locky said:
Not googles fault idiots leave wifi networks open.
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That's not the point.

If i leave my door open does it mean I am inviting you to come in and take everything?

No!

I would be STUPID not to lock my front door but it doesn't mean I am letting you to come in does it?
 
I cannot believe this, I shall definately lose sleep tonight :(

Its like those CCTV cameras in public places and those ID cards that essentially surrender us to the government.

:(
 
Jokester said:
Heard this on the radio early, it's absolutely shocking that Google have been effectively been spying on private individuals and collecting personal information from them. Yes people should make their networks secure but it's no defence for something that's illegal to do.
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eh?

Did you even read the article, you're very naive if you actually believe that.
 
dowie said:
eh?

Did you even read the article, you're very naive if you actually believe that.
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It seems I did read the article - they weren't just connecting to peoples unsecured networks, they were intercepting traffic from those networks and storing it. That is completely illegal to do.
 
randal24 said:
How can they possibly use the word "blunder"?




Did they accidentally kit the Google Maps car out with a high gain antenna and sniffing software? I mean easily done after all!

Google knew what they were doing, it probably cost them a lot of money to collect all the images for Street View so why not kill two birds with one stone ahead of time. Wait for the opportunity to arise then use the data you secretly collected previously, be that a open wifi mesh network or some means to sell security to the unsecured masses.

I'd like to know who blew the whistle, clearly someone on the Street View project doesn't agree with Google's business model. I doubt very much that Google's conscience brought this to the surface.
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it looks like it was set up to gather all the SSIDs of any public wifi points but the program still had the bit of code that sampled the packets left in.
 
Raymond Lin said:
That's not the point.

If i leave my door open does it mean I am inviting you to come in and take everything?

No!

I would be STUPID not to lock my front door but it doesn't mean I am letting you to come in does it?
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If you leave your curtains open would you be ****ed if someone saw you starkers as they walked past?
 
Raymond Lin said:
If i leave my door open does it mean I am inviting you to come in and take everything?
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Google didn't 'steal' the wi-fi data. They may have saved a copy of it to their servers or whatever but that's not analogous to physically taking something.
 
Zom said:
Google didn't 'steal' the wi-fi data. They may have saved a copy of it to their servers or whatever but that's not analogous to physically taking something.
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They illegally intercepted it. That's why some people are angry, because it potentially breaks federal wire tapping laws.
 
If you don't secure your wifi the data you transmit over it is not private, saying this is a breach of privacy is like saying I'm at fault for hearing someone in a crowded pub when they are shouting and waving their arms.

The world should stop trying to defend stupidity.

also

Sin_Chase said:
Mobile encryption is broken.

Unsecured wifi network with active and enabled DHCP is an invitation to connect to the network and most devices will do it without any prompts, that's how the protocol works.

It is entirely your own responsibility to secure your network and pleading ignorance is not an excuse, if you do not know better, seek advice or pay someone who does.

UNDERSTAND the technology you use, respect it and the ramifications of using it wrongly.
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+1
 
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Aod said:
we don't have federal wire tapping laws in this country... :confused:
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Sorry, was referring to the US & Germany's Data Protection Authority. I don't think it's been raised as a legal issue in the UK (yet). End of the day it isn't a huge issue and yes there is some exaggeration :p but as has been said its not exactly an easy mistake to make, and if the interception is illegal (maybe not in all legal systems?) then it's right that the media have highlighted the issue. Huge companies like Google need to be strictly regulated considering the amount of data they already hold.

Fair play if it was a genuine mistake, it does seem a tad unlikely though.
 
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