Google Street View logging MAC Addresses - And Sniffing Data

[Reno]

We often raise the privacy issue on this forum and we often hear some members say they are not concerned, after all, "everybody is doing it". Well, it's getting worse, not better:

Google Street View logs WiFi networks, Mac addresses

Google's...Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users' unique Mac (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along.

Germany's Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar says he's "horrified" by the discovery.

"I am appalled… I call upon Google to delete previously unlawfully collected personal data on the wireless network immediately and stop the rides for Street View"....

Read Full Story [theregister.co.uk]


[bits.blogs.nytimes.com...]

... Google is now saying, in a late-night-Friday European-time confession that is sure to infuriate regulators and privacy advocates, that its previous claims were wrong.

Mr. Eustace wrote that a review of Street View software has revealed that due to a programming error in 2006, the company has indeed been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from non-password protected Wi-Fi networks in Europe, in the United States and other major regions around the world.

[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 1:13 pm (utc) on May 15, 2010]
[edit reason] added ny times link [/edit]

[Green_Grass]

Ah, perhaps the next move is to identify what you are searching for online then send sales people to ring your doorbell?

Would love to hear that Rant.. Maybe I can read it on his blog then.. ;-)

[np2003]

Get the bots to log into unsecured networks, point to Google, auto click on a few high paying keywords ($10/click). Could clear thousands of networks per day.. PROFIT!

The sheer amount of clicks per day this could rack up for their revenue... boundless... Imagine the possibilities.