Posted on 07/01/2014 6:10:55 AM PDT by Enlightened1
e U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear an appeal by Google over whether it violated federal wiretapping law when its Street View mapping cars collected consumers' personal data.
That leaves intact a federal appeals court ruling that the U.S. Wiretap Act protects the privacy of information on unencrypted in-home Wi-Fi networks and means Google can face lawsuits over the matter, according to a Bloomberg report.
The issue stems from Google's Street View, a comprehensive mapping program that provides images of areas around the world. Google has admitted that its camera-equipped Street View cars inadvertently captured emails, passwords and other data from unprotected wireless networks as they drove by.
In a statement, a Google spokesman said the Mountain View, Calif., company was disappointed that the Supreme Court had declined to hear the case.
In March 2013, Google agreed to pay a $7-million fine for collecting personal data from millions of unsecured wireless networks while operating its Street View fleet. The fine settled an investigation of the data collection by 38 states and the District of Columbia.
As part of that agreement, Google promised to educate employees about the privacy of consumer data and sponsor a public service campaign to teach people how to secure their wireless networks. Google also agreed to destroy the data it collected.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Let’s see ... when you take a picture of your kid with your GPS enabled cell phone, do you accidently record the nearby radio stations’ broadcasts as well? Pretty much the same thing. They had to *plan* to capture (and *RECORD*) Wi-Fi data *and* if any testing was done at all (which you *know* it was) then they would have known that they were capturing password info.
> To IT Freepers: Serious question: Is there any way that this information could have been collected by Google inadvertently, as Google maintains?
No it would have had to be intentional and I bet it was done to capture information on browser activity to determine what the tastes / preferences of the household members were. All they’d have to do is access your internet cache, download it, then analyze it by looking at the websites you vsted. After that just sell your name and address to different marketing strategist companies. Sounds like something Google nerds would cook up to make a profit. Of course they would also try to insert human DNA into a tarantula to make them bigger and more intelligent just for the fun of it not realizing they just created something that might wipe out large swaths of the human race.
Liberals - not good at foresight or seeing consequences.
>> Is there any way that this information could have been collected by Google inadvertently, as Google maintains?
No way, no how. There is nothing about taking street level images that in any way requires or benefits from spotty Wi-Fi along the route.
They operated sophisticated sniffers to consciously search out unprotected wifi (and who knows? Maybe even try quick attacks on protected wifi). And once they found such a connection, you bet your butt they snooped around on whatever computers they found on the home net.
News flash: they ALSO operated other kinds of scanners, to discover (for example) what teevee station you are tuned into. Think NSA: they routinely do this. And it CAN be done, by sensing faint harmonics from your teevee tuner’s IF.
Oh yeah, and audio too. Infrared. ANYTHING they can think of.
Their motto may be “don’t be evil” — but Google is EVIL.
There probably have been. Criminals can find good target areas by knowing availability of escape routes.
Hey, maybe they have those missing IRS emails!
“There probably have been. Criminals can find good target areas by knowing availability of escape routes.”
Absolutely; I should have been more specific. I can’t believe it hasn’t arisen in criminal cases that this is being used as a tool.
My house doesn’t need blurring because they didn’t come down my street.
I’m no techie either, but I do recall that our network does not require a password as long as it recognizes the machine when it is plugged in. With a new machine, it requires a password. Our network is encrypted.
Also, check your property tax website. Some have your house plans online. Ours used to have those but took them down.
For a criminal to use such data to facilitate commission of a crime, wouldn’t they still need to know an address to look for? If they already know the address of a potential victim, they don’t need Google to case the place. And if they don’t know the address, Google won’t help them find it.
That’s ridiculous; I couldn’t imagine people tolerating that.
A criminal doesn’t need to know your address. All he has to do is pick a potential neighborhood and start scrolling up and down the streets until he spots a home that looks promising.
“For a criminal to use such data to facilitate commission of a crime, wouldn’t they still need to know an address to look for? If they already know the address of a potential victim, they don’t need Google to case the place. And if they don’t know the address, Google won’t help them find it.”
How hard would it be for a co-worker to get your address online? Your HR department already has it. How about any of the countless people that collect such information? A school worker, an employee at a doctor’s office, there are a lot of people that at least know your address.
It’s not Google I’m worried about. It’s the hacker looking for personal information that he can use to steal identities, access bank accounts, apply for credit cards, etc., that is the problem. All a hacker needs to do is drive into any neighborhood and collect the data. People shouldn’t be worried about Google when the problem is their own failure to protect their data!
I will admit that I an a Neanderthal with all the electronic equipment we all have access to.
I do not understand how ANY private information could be gathered by Google if they are only driving by & taking pictures of properties.
IF they have some other type of equipment on board & are getting other information, I would personally sue them out of business.
My wifi router is on the dresser, ha ha.
Which is why they had to take it down. Since one office put it online, you know others have as well. I haven't checked the Way Back Machine to see if it's still out there somewhere but it probably is.
Possibly, but then upon learning this, Google should have corrected it. Google had ample time to correct his, yet did nothing. It then became intentional.
That really is no different than driving to a nice neighborhood and looking for a potential target. Plus, the Google view is a static picture that may be years out of date; it won’t provide information like how many people live there, if the owners are typically home a lot, or if the house is vacant all day, when the owners are on vacation, etc. In other words, the criminal won’t find a target of opportunity by looking at Google street view, and Google street view will not help much with a planned burglary.
In other words, anyone who already knows something about you can get your address. They don’t need Google for that. And if they don’t know you exist, the chance that they will find you with Google street view is minuscule.
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