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Data Engineer In Google Case Is Identified

Posted by timothy on from the under-the-bus dept.

theodp writes "Meet Engineer Doe. A NY Times report has identified Marius Milner as the software engineer at the center of the uproar over a Google project that used Wi-Fi sniffing Google Street View cars to collect e-mail and other personal data from potentially millions of unsuspecting people. Milner, creator of the wardriving software NetStumbler, referred questions to his lawyer. Google declined to comment. A patent search shows the USPTO awarded Google and Milner a patent in June 2011 for protecting Internet users from 'hackers and other ne'er-do-wells [who] may seek to tap into communications on a network.'"

7 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. If you have something that you don't want by NotMariusMiller · · Score: -1, Troll

    Anyone remember Eric Schmidt's words:

    "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

    Oh wow, looks like Google tried to protect the guy being identified in courts and now he is outed by NY Times. How big hypocrisy is that? Oh wow, turns out he is a wardriving software creator, hacker and the patent application Google and he was awarded was about protecting against the exact thing Google and he JUST DID, worldwide snooping and collection of private data. Just wow, Google. Just wow.

    MariusMilner.com and every other associated domain is free. Hint hint. He probably has nothing to hide, so there's no problem if someone lists all the publicly available information, pictures, images, live movements etc there ;-)

    1. Re:If you have something that you don't want by NotMariusMiller · · Score: -1, Troll

      If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

      Or in this case, if you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be broadcasting it over the airwaves to the public at large.

      Just a thought.

      You can't be that stupid. I live in a place that has wifi where you log in with password. It is encrypted, but after logged in you can still sniff everyone else on the network. It still doesn't make it right to do so.

      Likewise, your internet traffic goes unencrypted when it leaves your house. It doesn't make it right for me to plug in to that in between your house and ISP and capture that data.

      Google and Marius Milner can go fuck themselves.

    2. Re:If you have something that you don't want by NotMariusMiller · · Score: 0, Troll

      Not every site supports https, and I don't want some random people to snoop data even if isn't as secure. And in fact, I do use VPN for exactly this reason, but I am in the minority that knows this stuff. 99% don't.

      The reason we have laws is to prevent people from taking advantage of situations. Your reasoning is along the same as "you shouldn't go out if you don't want to get stabbed". It is not reasonable suggestion. We prevent people from abusing things like this with laws and there are penalties if they do. I hope Google gets fined big time and every engineer and supervisor associated with the project put into jail. That's what would happen to any individual doing this.

    3. Re:If you have something that you don't want by NotMariusMiller · · Score: -1, Troll

      On top of that, Google outright LIED that it was just accident, and they have been now busted on their lie.

    4. Re:If you have something that you don't want by NotMariusMilner2 · · Score: -1, Troll

      Written by someone who obviously doesn't understand how https works. Your site URL is validated against a server-side certificate. The protocol starts with an exchange of public keys, then uses session keys for the session. This makes a man in the middle attack impossible.

      Yeah, who here doesn't understand things. I live in a country that has been serving fake certs and other trickery even when trying to login to fucking Slashdot using HTTPS. If you believe that there is no way around or no tricks to use against users you are being unbelievable naive and/or idiot. Hell, even Slashdot allows this because it has non-https components even if you browse with https.

      Go back to your noob-box and get some clue.

  2. Re:ftfy by NotMariusMiller · · Score: -1, Troll

    Maybe, just maybe, Google and their idiot engineers realize what it feels like when all their info leaks out? This is why he needs to be singled out, and all his information made public.

  3. Re:Idiots by NotMariusMiller · · Score: -1, Troll

    I guess it would be beyond expectation for someone to tell anyone complaining their data was "stolen" that they should have been pumping it into the local atmosphere for all to read without any encryption or other basic protection.

    Yeah, just like we should not prosecute crooks that steal credit card numbers from ATM's, but instead we should blame the victims because they were "too stupid" not to see the modifications?