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FTC Ends Probe of Google StreetView Privacy Breach
GovTechGuy writes "The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wrote to Google on Wednesday to end its probe into a major privacy breach in which the company collected and stored private user information, such as passwords and entire e-mails, without even realizing it after the search giant promised to improve its privacy practices."
I'm sure that Eric Schmidt being Barrack Obama's "informal" technology advisor had nothing to do with it.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
Gee, we got caught; better do it differently next time. (After all, there's no penalty).
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
i have yet to see any corporation with a major internet presence or market segment come close to following or guaranteeing their privacy policies with complete certitude. Companies from AT&T to Facebook to Chase never see a punishment for these leaks, or rather if Google does it would be an exception to the longstanding rule of american internet commerce.
outrage does nothing. Users should take this revelation as an opportunity to improve their general knowledge of internet security.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Here in Canada we saw one of the Google Cars parked outside a Tim Hortons for a really long time, turns out the winter months were so cold the fuel line froze up. We sent the Engineers back to the States telling them we'd drive it back once it warmed up, but we've actually set it up so we can recieve all the wireless traffic between Alaska and the rest of the states.
If suing Google after they collected the passwords you transmitted unencrypted over wireless networks is *really* your idea of "privacy" . . . you're going to be in a big surprise when someone less friendly than Google does the same thing.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Gee, we got caught; better do it differently next time.
Well, the fact is, Google discovered the abnormal storage themselves. And reported it immediately.
Storing that data was not their intention, only making a map of SSIDs.
It's not like they where planning to keep this data and profit by re-selling it to marketeers (FaceBook, I'm looking at you !)
I stay with my belief :
- The clueless users who don't secure their network are the problem.
- Even if Google did got punished, this won't suddenly make the clueless users less vulnerable to anyone with bad intentions.
- And, if the next recording guy is a bad guy, it's very unlikely that he'll report himself. He'll just run away unnoticed with the data, and try to sell it.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
See, in other countries - like say, Canada or the UK or the EU - corporations aren't People. And they have no rights.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I think it's important to compare like cases if you don't want to be marked a troll.
FUCK. It's not like entering someone's home, it's like turning to the same channel they're talking on on a CB. THEY ARE BROADCASTING IN THE CLEAR. THEY HAVE NO FUCKING PRIVACY!
I used to get high on life, but I developed a tolerance. Now I need something stronger.
without even realizing it
Google sniffing out all this stuff by accident? ! **sneeze** bullshit !
Would it be an accident, it'd even be scarier. It'd mean that the search giant don't know what they're doing.
I don't think you've ever used a sniffer. Google drove around with a wireless sniffer that recorded traffic to a log file. The guys in the van would upload all their logs to a central location where they were parsed to build a database of access point SSIDs and MAC addresses for geolocation. The problem is a sniffer dump contains a lot of raw packet data, more than just the information they needed, because that's what a sniffer is supposed to do; capture all the traffic it finds.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
heya,
You're an idiot.
Now, I know people in Canada like to trumpet about how WE'RE NOT THE US!!
Lol, personally, here in Australia, I find it quite funny. And likewise, Europeans want nothing to do with those horrible Americans *eye rolls*. The fact that they're inward-looking and quite a bit xenophobic (disguised as nationalistic pride) has nothing to do with it.
However, apply some logic here. The parent had it dead on. Whichever idiot used the "walk into somebody's home" argument is either technically incompetent (which in itself isn't a negative thing, although I do wonder why they're reading Slashdot), or just an idiot, full stop.
This is like broadcasting in clear on the CB.
Personally, I think the Canadians and EU are probably just annoyed off at the whole American hegemony or whatever, or the fact that Google is an American corporation, and they didnt' think of it first...lol. That, or this is some silly populist pandering exercise, designed to make ti look like their privacy commissioners are actually doing real work.
I mean, seriously, Google is hardly going to kick and scream, they're an easy target in that sense, they'll just shrug and move on. Why don't you actually try targeting something that shows balls, like I don't know...real companies who actually violate your privacy?
Cheers,
Victor
Well I for one am glad this is over and Google understands what it did is wrong and nobody will try something like this again.
I'm glad this issue got some public attention, and everyone learned a valuable lesson (which should already have been obvious): reading other people's wi-fi is wrong.
Now I can go back to setting my router to no encryption and be safe in the knowledge that nobody will read the passwords and bank details I will inevitably send in the clear.