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Google Says It Mistakenly Collected Wi-Fi Data While Mapping
Even if Google says there's nothing to worry about, newviewmedia.com writes, the company "said it would stop collecting Wi-Fi network data from its StreetView cars, after an internal investigation it conducted found it was accidentally collecting data about websites people were visiting over the hotspots.
From the WSJ article: 'It's now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open [i.e. non-password-protected] Wi-Fi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products.'"
AP information is packet data (they're called beacon frames). Looking for beacon frames is a lot more effective at finding APs on the move than using whatever built-in scan feature your card drivers have. They probably had a SNAFU and forgot to filter out data packets in their capturing setup, instead storing everything that hits the antenna (or some engineer didn't realize it would be an issue).
Sure, and your sister was asking for it with that dress she was wearing, right?
Fortunately, most of the world is enlightened enough to realise that such statements are absurd, and just because someone is vulnerable to something unpleasant that does not make it their fault if someone else does that unpleasant thing to them.
FWIW, the actions described would probably be criminal and carry jail time if they occurred in the UK (e.g., under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006).
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
I disagree. An open network is not an invitation to join it and use it (associate), but an unencrypted network is an invitation for anyone to sniff your traffic passively. This would be like satellite TV providers sending their feeds unencrypted and then complaining that non-subscribers are watching their channels. What do you expect if you're broadcasting your data on the air in the clear into public space?
Granted, sniffing everything is not nice of Google (and probably an unintended screwup), but you really shouldn't expect that people won't do it.
I wonder if they were using "off the shelf" open source tools to collect this information.
By default Kismet will log the pcap file, gps log, alerts, and network log in XML and plaintext.
http://www.kismetwireless.net/documentation.shtml
It is entirely possible that they were using off the shelf open source tools and this log type was simply not turned off in the configuration file.
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