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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.'"
they're not called `open networks` for nothing. Tighten up, or shut up. Oh, and postmen read your postcards too.
How in the heck do you "accidentally" gather information over a wireless network? If all you want is a collection of AP's that's one thing, but any storage of packet data no matter how temporary cannot be considered an accident. It has to be planned out and executed. An accident is stubbing my toe on the nightstand, this is an invasion of privacy.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
Me: "Why are there drawings all over the wall?!?"
Her: "It was an accident! I didn't mean to do it!"
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Yeah you do. When you say "Hey, let's see what open wi-fi stuff is out there", and tune into those signals, you pick up on some spare traffic...and if you're saving every packet you come across for later processing (like 'what open wi-fi router was this'), then yeah, it's going to get saved like the rest.
Then they looked at the data they'd saved, said "Oh hey we didn't mean to get that stuff". Kind of like if you're logging all data that someone sends when they're connected to your open Telnet port, and you realize later that it saves their username/password along with the rest--it wasn't a conscious decision, you might not have thought about it at all, you might never plan to even look at the logs except in some specific cases, and while a workaround might take some time...you kind of drop a brick when your legal team realizes you have it.
As far as I can tell, Google posted this message without being forced to by any government. Most companies would keep this kind of thing quiet, or lie about it, especially if privacy advocates got wind of it. Google, within a few days of finding out about the issue, posts an APOLOGY for doing something that MIGHT have possibly damaged a few people, IF the information they collected had been leaked.
Unless we have reason to believe otherwise, Google screwed up, and as soon as they were aware of the mistake, took steps to rectify it and then went public about the mistake. If we get evidence that Google is lying about this, that's another story, but has there been any such evidence yet? I'm all for raking corporations over the coals when they make mistakes and don't own up, but how often do you see a giant corporation blurting out "mea culpa" like this?
Also:
As much as I like Google I hope they get the book thrown at them over this. To claim that they have accidently been collecting this data for three years is just silly.
It's not remotely silly. A week ago I discovered a DB table at my (multinational media conglomerate) company that had been silently logging data for -- wait for it -- three years. It wasn't any personal info, or data we needed, but everyone had forgotten about it. The idea of Google making a similar mistake is not "silly" at all.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
I respectfully disagree. If they're telling the truth (and I have no reason to believe that they're not), then they didn't even realize they were collecting this information. They did not use it for monetary gain.
If anything, this gives me more respect for Google, since they did not have to reveal this information (they could have indefinitely stonewalled...there's no external evidence that they kept this data). They're willing to admit when they do something wrong. That scores points in my book. Kudos to Google.
The idea that a large company like that would embark on a huge project like StreetView without thoroughly auditing the code they planned on using boggles the mind. Either they didn't carefully audit the code before deploying it in their massive global project or they did and knowingly collected this data. I'm not sure which of those options makes Google look worse.