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It appears that Google, Inc has had a lapse in judgment for the last 4 years and has been scooping up snippets of personal data from open WiFi networks. Google has acknowledged that they have indeed done the captures. Google has issued a public apology and state that none of the information has made it to their search engines or other services. According to the article: "Google characterized its collection of snippets from e-mails and Web surfing done on public Wi-Fi networks as a mistake, and said it has taken steps to avoid a recurrence. About 600 gigabytes of data was taken off of the Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries, including the U.S. Google plans to delete it all as soon as it gains clearance from government authorities." finance.yahoo.com/news/Google-grabs-personal-info-apf-2162289993.html It looks like Google, Inc has some explaining to do. Deb Hale Long Lines, LLC |
Deborah 278 Posts ISC Handler |
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May 15th 2010 9 years ago |
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A bad move for Google, but perhaps a good move for security awareness. The threat of wardriving is little known to less technical users, but this is making major media. Perhaps it will encourage a few more people to configure security on their own wireless networks, or seek out assistance in doing so.
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hacks4pancakes 48 Posts |
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May 15th 2010 9 years ago |
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It sounds like what something like Kismet or aerodump-ng would do by default; as well as the csv/xml lists of scanned networks, these tools also dump any captured packets. I believe Google's stated intent was to locate wireless access points so that a non--GPS-enabled device could phone home to Google with a list of BSSIDs within range and Google could then guess on a location. I'm not really comfortable with that either.
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Steven C. 171 Posts |
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May 15th 2010 9 years ago |
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Does anyone know why they need clearance from Goverments to delete this data?
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W60 14 Posts |
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May 15th 2010 9 years ago |
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W60, potentially because it could be subpoenaed as evidence?
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hacks4pancakes 48 Posts |
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May 15th 2010 9 years ago |
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Google wardriving - film at eleven. Can't say I'm all that surprised.
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No Love. 37 Posts |
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May 17th 2010 9 years ago |
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