Google: all your data belongs to us...

[innonimatu]

...or at least, we'll have it somehow. Not content with infecting most of the pages on the world wide web with its scripts, collecting information about online habits of just about everyone, and tying those to personal identifications through accounts like gmail and other "free" (as in beer) services, they've also been mapping the planet, down to street images. And now they've been caught collecting information from wifi networks with their streetview cars:

Google admits wi-fi data collection blunder

Google has admitted that for the past three years it has wrongly collected information people have sent over unencrypted wi-fi networks.

The issue came to light after German authorities asked to audit the data the company's Street View cars gathered as they took photos viewed on Google maps.

Google said during a review it found it had "been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open networks".

The admission will increase concerns about potential privacy breaches.

These snippets could include parts of an email, text or photograph or even the website someone may be viewing.

In a blogpost Google said as soon as it became aware of the problem it grounded its Street View cars from collecting wi-fi information and segregated the data on its network.

Notice that last part: it didn't remove it, it "segregated" it...

And they admit that they've been doing it since 2006 - apparently they didn't notice it, it was a "mistake".

Why don't more people, and especially governments outside the US (apart form the german and chinese ones), find Google's unending appetite for data a little too suspicious?

 

[MeteorPunch]

This story is pretty funny. Google is in the information business, so I wouldn't even be surprised if their main priority was collecting Wifi data.

Although I don't know how this is illegal unless they are decrypting peoples stuff...it's a trust issue:

"This information was leaking out and they picked it up. If you are going to broadcast your email on an open wi-fi, don't be surprised if someone picks it up."

 

[Riffraff]

Completely unbelievable that this was an accident.

 

[Lord Baal]

Are we sure Google is controlled by humans anymore? This sounds suspiciously like Skynet-type behaviour for my liking.

Also, down with Google. If it weren't so incredibly useful in so many ways, I'd boycott it.

 

[Brighteye]

...or at least, we'll have it somehow. Not content with infecting most of the pages on the world wide web with its scripts, collecting information about online habits of just about everyone, and tying those to personal identifications through accounts like gmail and other "free" (as in beer) services, they've also been mapping the planet, down to street images. And now they've been caught collecting information from wifi networks with their streetview cars:

Google admits wi-fi data collection blunder



Notice that last part: it didn't remove it, it "segregated" it...

And they admit that they've been doing it since 2006 - apparently they didn't notice it, it was a "mistake".

Why don't more people, and especially governments outside the US (apart form the german and chinese ones), find Google's unending appetite for data a little too suspicious?

I'm more suspicious of my own government. If Google does something that's plain wrong I can get compensation from it. When my government does it, or joins in, I get screwed.

 

[GoodGame]

Sounds like an honest mistake if they archived the data without examining it. I bet Google could sue the FCC if some class action suit was filed against Google.

 

[emzie]

The moral of this story isn't google, but that you're an idiot to use an unsecured network for things you wouldn't want shared.

 

[Speedo]

The moral of this story isn't google, but that you're an idiot to use an unsecured network for things you wouldn't want shared.

This. People just want to blame big bad Google for their own ignorance when it comes to network security.

 

[ori]

Unencrypted wifi networks ceased to be legally tenable in Germany last week anyways, so this information is useless for everyone. So whatever. Of course Google proved to not be a reliable company when it comes to disclosing required information about data collection to the relevant authorities - and likely broke rules regarding data privacy, so they should just be treated to the full extent of the law that requires immediate deletion of unlawfully collected data that can be used to identify specific persons and if they don't fined and or shut down until they do