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Google Wi-Fi Kiosks in New York Promise No Privacy, 'Can Collect Anything' (observer.com)
Here's the thing about those wi-fi kiosks replacing New York City's public payphones. They're owned by Google/Alphabet company Sidewalk Labs, they're covered with ads, and if you read the privacy policy on its web site, "it's not that one." An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes an article from the Observer:
Columbia professor Benjamin Read got a big laugh at this weekend's Hackers on Planet Earth XI conference in Manhattan when he pointed out that the privacy policy on LinkNYC's website only applies to the website itself, not to the actual network of kiosks.
The web page points out that it has two separate privacy policies in an easily-missed section near the top, and for their real-world kiosks, "They essentially have a privacy policy that says, 'we can collect anything and do anything' and that sets the outer bound'," says New York Civil Liberties Union attorney Mariko Hirose.
The Observer reports that the policy "promises not to use facial recognition... however, nothing stops the company from retracting that guarantee. In fact, Hirose said that she's been told by the company that the kiosk's cameras haven't even been turned on yet, but it is also under no obligation to tell the public when the cameras go live." The article concludes that in general the public's sole line of defense is popular outrage, and that privacy policies "have been constructed primarily to guard companies against liability and discourage users from reading closely."
The web page points out that it has two separate privacy policies in an easily-missed section near the top, and for their real-world kiosks, "They essentially have a privacy policy that says, 'we can collect anything and do anything' and that sets the outer bound'," says New York Civil Liberties Union attorney Mariko Hirose.
The Observer reports that the policy "promises not to use facial recognition... however, nothing stops the company from retracting that guarantee. In fact, Hirose said that she's been told by the company that the kiosk's cameras haven't even been turned on yet, but it is also under no obligation to tell the public when the cameras go live." The article concludes that in general the public's sole line of defense is popular outrage, and that privacy policies "have been constructed primarily to guard companies against liability and discourage users from reading closely."
If only I can please the master more!
They not obligated to even provide any privacy policy, at all - so why even bother posting anything?
as long as VPNs aren't banned, it shouldn't be an issue, should it? Who trusts public WiFi anyway, anybody could spy on it.
I went to use one of these and it wanted to install an iOS configuration profile on my phone.
These profiles can configure your phone on a fairly deep level, doing things like adding proxies, restricting functionality, and so on.
I hit cancel and just continued to use my data plan. Screw that.
allows a human being to conclude that bits they transmit in the clear from their devices while physically out on the public sidewalk using a protocol that by design and by physical necessity allows and requires uniquely identifying the transmission source...should somehow be private?
Get over it tinfoil hatters, things that happen in public are public for all to see. If you want complete privacy, then conduct your business behind closed doors, but make sure you get some trusted body doubles to walk around elsewhere in plain view so that The Man doesn't can't know for sure who it is that goes into or out of said doors.
Hey, they said anything. Ba dum psssh
Alphabet/Google/whatever they are called is a for-profit business. This endeavor has to (roughly) do one ore more of the following:
Anything else would violate their fiduciary responsibilities.
Repeat after me: Do not plug into random USB ports or connect to random WiFi hot spots unless you are comfortable with their security practices and business model.
You guys need to establish a reasonable expectation of privacy even in public or this is only a small glimpse of the coming total surveillance society. It is not reasonable to expect that nobody will take your picture. It is reasonable to expect that you won't be tracked everywhere you go. If you don't want never sleeping, never forgetting computer systems to have eyes everywhere, establish a legal right against surveillance. Surveillance is not the same as being seen in public.
Some time ago I saw a picture in a news post where one of these Wi-Fi kiosks was being installed in front of a Starbucks entry door. Hmmm... Seems like you could just go inside the Starbucks and activate the Wi-Fi there for free without buying anything. You could also sit down while doing your web surfing. Better, too, during inclement weather. Not sure about NYC, but in my medium size city there's a Starbucks within walking distance of every other Starbucks.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
If you want privacy, pay for it. Don't complain that the free access you're getting is used for marketing.
Google is a US government spy shop. You can not be just a little bit pregnant.
Eric Schmidt at Pentagon? Gee maybe read about Caitlyn Jenner and the Kardashians. wake the fukc up.
Google's business model is providing free services in exchange of collecting personal data.
It's very simple really, if you don't like it, like me, don't use their service.
The article concludes that in general the public's sole line of defense is popular outrage, and that privacy policies "have been constructed primarily to guard companies against liability and discourage users from reading closely."
So, what you're saying is, the public is completely screwed and nothing will stop these kiosks from screwing virtually everyone over.
Can't wait until I hear about one of these kiosks getting owned by criminals and Google/Alphabet saying "Sorry, but TOS. You waived all risk, including security. Good luck with that!"
You have NO RIGHT to privacy in a PUBLIC place.
These'll be lapped up by the same Google-worshipping hipsters that we used to throw out of bars for wearing Google Glass. Unfortunately for Google -- and perhaps NYC, depending upon how they're used -- whatever kind of stats these things collect will really be skewed to the shallower end of the gene pool...
Really? I don't hear the homeless complaining about listening to a speech while they eat their free lunch.
The main issue is not so much privacy as it is all-pervasive surveillance. Technology is really taking us down the rabbit-hole into the madness of so much (semi-)current dystopian sf.
There is a site called Dark Patterns, mentioned by our friends at Ars, detailing this kind of 'small print designed for people to miss'. Understandable, but wrong.
John_Chalisque
then about all it is good for is googling some benign information and trolling 4chan
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
As others will say, if you are using public WiFi without protection, you are a fool.
Unless it generates a penny of google profit, then feel free and you'll even get morons on /. proclaiming a private for profit mega corporation has the right to surveil and track people innocently passing by who are not using their service, are unaware theyre being tracked and have no opt-out if they did know.
Public places are for the PUBLIC! you dumb googlebot fanatic assholes.
I don't need wifi access that bad to sell my soul to Google just to have it.
We can always use this if anybody complains about us recording the cops, with a microphone and all. Make this a two way street, and it becomes a much smaller issue. *No privacy for me, no privacy for thee* Hope you like apples...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
If no one uses them, that will send the right message.
"The article concludes that in general the public's sole line of defense is popular outrage."
Nope. Vandalism still works.
Since the camera's are not currently off, put superglue on the camera lens. It will block it from taking clear pictures and be hard a fuck to take off. And since they don't have the camera's on yet, they won't know who did it.
Sometimes you have to take your privacy back from those you who want to abuse it.
Be seeing you...
Google Wi-Fi Kiosks in New York Promise No Privacy, 'Can Collect Anything'
So basically what you should assume is happening at every WiFi hotspot?
/s
Simple. Trust nothing Google. Use it, just perform all your top secret pinky and the brain shit without the phone.
Chrome is also gay.
VIDEO of the HOPE XI talk is at https://livestream.com/interne... (where you will notice that "Professor Read" is in fact Benjamin Dean, Fellow for Cyber-security and Internet Governance at Columbia SIPA. )