Act now!!!

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Due to the large complaints of privacy issues with google, they are recommending you to apply now.

I recently applied and I will be contacted on Janurary 23 2038

You better act now or you may never get in!

[catscomputer]

I don't know how accurate this report is, but I read the following rather horrifying article in the techonology section of one of our main news websites in NZ today: hxxp://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/3692659/Does-Google-want-your-Wi-Fi-data-too

From the article (source: Sydney Morning Herald):

Google Australia will today be sent a "please explain" letter from two privacy organisations demanding to know why the company has been collecting personal Wi-Fi network data from Australian homes alongside the images it takes with its Street View cameras.

The letter comes in response to recent reports that the company has been quietly collecting Wi-Fi data around the world when taking pictures of streets and houses for its mapping service.

Street View, which has already rolled out in a number of countries including Australia, displays panoramic street-level photos taken by specially equipped vans which are also equipped with Wi-Fi receivers that scan private network signals as it drives through neighbourhoods.

!!! (see above link for the rest of the story)

[DarkSnakeKobra]

That's awful. Google is getting to know us too much. That's just sick. I can't explain how awful and horrible that is. Google needs to stop. The government needs to intervene. Someone needs some serious jail time.

[goldhound]

I agree that it is ominous, however, when you are broadcasting an electronic signal it can legally be noted or found although if it is private or "secure" the finder may not be able to access it legally without a court order. I doubt that Google would chance attempting to access your network and assume they are gathering data regarding the number of wireless networks for their own uses, which may be questionable.

[mountaintree16]

@Catscomputer

@#$%^&*@#% Google does NOT need to be taking pictures of people's houses... I find this entire thing completely and utterly disgusting....

[catscomputer]

Mountaintree they took pictures of people's houses and streets ages ago - a year or two ago I think, and it created a bit of an uproar at the time. They did that for Google Maps. When you type an address into the map you can ask to see the house the address corresponds with - as well as who is playing in the yard, what car is parked outside and whatever else was happening at that house at the precise moment the Google van sloped down the road with it's four cameras snapping away. It's only public information anyone can get if they happen to be driving down your street and peering over your fence at the time, but you probably don't expect it to be published and searchable on line afterwards!!

What this article is about is that they took details of your wi-fi at the same time, and didn't tell anyone they were doing so, let alone for what purpose. Read the whole article if you didn't. They say they don't publish the details of your wi-fi online, but that's not the point. They didn't ask if they could take it - a unique MAC address number which can be mapped to your house. From the article: ""If Google rang you up (or anyone else) and asked you to read out a serial number of your mobile phone, what would you say? I'd tell them it's none of their business. If I saw them on the street with binoculars trying to read it, I'd close the curtains." A fair point, I feel.

There is another article about it today in relation to NZ: hxxp://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/3695625/Google-cars-gathered-home-internet-data-without-telling

It irks me too! These things should be 'opt in' and a choice in my view.

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Google's CEO needs at least 50 years in federal prison. This is just getting way out of hand. People who also took part or knew about it should be in prison too. This is just wrong and Google knows it.

[YoKenny1]

When you become paranoid there is no escape.

When I zoom in to my location with Google Maps it is a real old picture taken by a satelite and I can not even see the cars clearly nor any people.

[ShyWriter]

@catscomputer The airwaves are PUBLIC so GOOGLE

[ShyWriter]

When you become paranoid there is no escape.

YoKenny, love that picture! :)

We are having more and more RED LIGHT CAMERAS installed here in some Florida cities. I absolutely LOVE it! You have no idea how many times I've almost been T-boned at an intersection by some idiot running red light.. and that's me waiting 3 seconds after the light changes green to go.. It's crazy down here; people on I95 going to work at 85mph while reading a book/newspaper or texting or putting makeup, etc, et al... :)

Shy

[Wide_Glide]

This is a Street View In New Orleans, Louisiana that is from Google Earth, not Google Maps.

There are thousands of these from around the globe, makes you go hmmmmmmmm

[ShyWriter]

This is a Street View In New Orleans, Louisiana that is from Google Earth, not Google Maps.

There are thousands of these from around the globe, makes you go hmmmmmmmm

Note that you can't see the license plate info..

Hey; in some way or another we're ALL voyeurs - people watchers, etc, et al...

Shy

[mountaintree16]

eh, creepers

[DarkSnakeKobra]

@ShyWriter-

Yep that is sweet. Looks like the cops will have to find another way for that expired meter.

[YoKenny1]

Google adds,

[ShyWriter]

Someone once told me that one is not really paranoid if someone is actually out to get you.

Shy

[Drum]

I agree that it is ominous, however, when you are broadcasting an electronic signal it can legally be noted or found although if it is private or "secure" the finder may not be able to access it legally without a court order. I doubt that Google would chance attempting to access your network and assume they are gathering data regarding the number of wireless networks for their own uses, which may be questionable.

Sorry to disillusion you, but when they were doing the "Street Mapping" thing in their vans in the country I live, right at the end, just as they were about to start packing up to leave, they got caught red-handed hacking into household Broadband loops and recording the traffic. What Google had'nt realised is that lot of very high-powered Geeks in this country had been espousing their deep suspicion of Google for many years, and these guys (who have a whole countrywide community) were very closely watching, and monitoring the Google vans with high-tech gear of their own. They caught Google red-handed with a mountain of proof, and there was a MASSIVE stink about it. Google could not come up with an explanation for their insidious behaviour.

[goldhound]

Sorry to disillusion you, but when they were doing the "Street Mapping" thing in their vans in the country I live, right at the end, just as they were about to start packing up to leave, they got caught red-handed hacking into household Broadband loops and recording the traffic. What Google had'nt realised is that lot of very high-powered Geeks in this country had been espousing their deep suspicion of Google for many years, and these guys (who have a whole countrywide community) were very closely watching, and monitoring the Google vans with high-tech gear of their own. They caught Google red-handed with a mountain of proof, and there was a MASSIVE stink about it. Google could not come up with an explanation for their insidious behaviour.

Not disillusioned and not to defend Google, but in this country hacking of "secured" wireless would be a crime. Regarding intercepting of unsecured wireless, it would be difficult to prove criminal intent. Google particularly, would know that the majority of wireless networks are unsecured in many places. In the small city near me i could leave my laptop open on the seat of the vehicle and acquire several different unsecured networks in a one block area.

Edited to add.........

Breaking news

When a homeowner runs an open, unencrypted wireless network and Google sniffs the packets from that network, has wiretapping taken place? Or did the openness of the network remove the user's reasonable expectation of privacy?

Google's Street View project has enmeshed the company in litigation around the world, most notably over the company's data collection from WiFi networks its camera cars passed while doing their work. (Google has claimed that this was a mistake.) In the US, a host of class-action lawsuits over the practice have been consolidated into a single case, and the California federal judge overseeing it has just refused Google's motion to completely dismiss the case. Sniffing even open WiFi packets might indeed be wiretapping, he ruled.

READ MORE

[Drum]

Howdy goldhound. Google were War-Driving plain and simple. Most people with computers would'nt have a clue how to War-Drive and would'nt do it even if they did know. One of the top I.T. guys in the country I live and who was the editor of a very good Internet magazine for many years, was always deeply suspicious of Google, and he became more and more alarmed about them with every passing year. What was getting his back up was that try as he may, he could get no acceptable response from them about what they did with all the information they gathered about people using the Web: he said they were extremely evasive and obfuscatory about it: they seem a lot like Microsoft don't they!!! Cheers (very interesting article you linked to goldhound, thanks.)

[Drum]

P.S. goldhound - in the country I live, Google, when got confronted with the vast amount of hard-evidence of their War-Driving claimed that (exactly as in all the countries where they got caught doing the same thing) that they had "accidentally collected information". Yes Your Honour it was an accident: I could'nt help pointing the directional aerial at the house and I have no idea how the highly specialised packet-sniffing software got onto my Mega-Powerful Laptop!!!!