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Google Describes Wi-Fi Sniffing In Pending Patent
theodp writes "After mistakenly saying that it did not collect Wi-Fi payload data, Google had to reverse itself, saying, 'it's now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) Wi-Fi networks.' OK, mistakes happen. But, as Seinfeld might ask, then what's the deal with the pending Google patent that describes capturing wireless data packets by operating a device — which 'may be placed in a vehicle' — in a 'sniffer' or 'monitor' mode and analyzing them on a server? Guess belated kudos are owed to the savvy Slashdot commenter who speculated back in January that the patent-pending technology might be useful inside a Google Street View vehicle. Google faces inquiries into its Wi-Fi packet sniffing practices by German and US authorities."
A patent?
Isn't that exactly the same thing which wardrivers have been doing since WiFi existed?
It seems there's one bit of Google that really wants to sniff packets and another side, probably PR, that doesn't want the bad press. At the end of the day they're now just another multinational corporation with potential markets rather than individual customers.
I am totally unconcerned with Google or anyone else collecting this kind of data. If you don't want anyone to know about your access point then stop broadcasting for hundreds of feet over public property. If you don't want me to decrypt your satellite feeds to get free TV then stop broadcasting it into my receiver on my property.
operating a device — which 'may be placed in a vehicle' — in a 'sniffer' or 'monitor' mode and analyzing them on a server?
As scary as the poster tries to make this sound, this is how you listen for public access points. This post is a scare-mongering dupe.
Yellow journalism is getting to be awfully common here on Slashdot. For instance this troll of a story which just so happens to be from the same author:
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/05/21/1427245
But, as Seinfeld might ask, then what's the deal with the pending Google patent that describes capturing wireless data packets
The deal is that the patent describes capturing and analysing wireless data packets to extract the IP adress alongside GPS coordinates in order to enhance Google's IP geolocation accuracy. The "mistake" that they owned up to is actually dumping and storing all packets, not just the external IP address. Those are two different things.
Wifi Sniffing and wardriving are two overlapping but different concepts. Sniffing is passively capturing wireless LAN traffic, i.e. a very broad term. Wardriving is when a mobile receiver passively captures a specific subset of WLAN traffic, namely the beacon frames, for the purpose of finding and listing but not accessing wireless LANs. What Google supposedly wanted to do was wardriving. What Google actually did was Wifi sniffing.
There is no reading comprehension in the world, apparently. This patent is about what Google claims it was trying to do -- recording SSID and MAC information for location purposes. It has nothing to do with the "mistaken" data packets (sent unencrypted over the air). How the submitter connected the two, I don't know. I suspect lack of coffee and excess Google hate.
Put identity in the browser.
Whatyoutalkinbout, Willis?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The difference here is that they actually intercepted data by mistake. If you use Kismet (probably the best wireless sniffing tool for Linux), you can set it to not save data packets, only beacon packets (which really have all the data that Google needs), but by default, it saves everything, including any data packets it sees (encrypted or unencrypted).
It depends on what you're doing what packets you want. If you're trying to break WEP, you only care about encrypted data packets; if you're just doing innocent wardriving, you only want the beacons.