OT: Google cars caught snooping

To my mind, data on unencrypted WIFI networks is being broadcast, and there should be no concern about its being recorded.

Sylvia.

Well, yes, of course. Even when done by "mistake"...

Dimiter

Or the WiFI manufacturer disables all security as the default so the user can actually get it to work.

Google makes few mistakes. :> Google == Evil Empire in far more insidious ways than MS ever *tried* to be!

Yup. One of my favorite courses in school was "The Sociological Impact of Technology" (or something like that). Alarming at the time. *More* alarming to see how much of it has "come true"!

Cars that track your driving habits, digital copiers that keep "copes" of the images it made, etc.

Of course! Problem is that folks don't realize:

- their network is open

- folks can and WILL eavesdrop

Just like they don't realize how much is disclosed when they opt to send a crash report to MS "for diagnostic purposes" ("Gee, I didn't know all that information was in there...").

I had to do some "remote snooping" on my (ex) Brother-in-Law. Absolutely amazing how much you can dig up on people and their activities without spending a dime *or* breaking any laws! :-/

If you run an open, unsecured wifi site, expect people to listen to it and use it.

John

At a client I needed web access for datasheets and stuff. So, as is customary, I went into the WLAN screen and let one of their employees type in the password while politely looking in the other direction. Then came a meeting so I shut the laptop off. Later turned it on again, checked a few datasheets. A WLAN low signal message came up, but _not_ with their WLAN name. Turned out my clients WLAN had been down and I was unknowingly on the WLAN of the company next door. Went over there and told them that their wireless is totally unprotected. "Really? Oh no! Oh dang!"

Sure. And run around with snooping cars to archive all communication they can get hold of, all people do that all the time, ROFL.

Dimiter

Just a generation change. Gates and those Google people just were smart enough to do a few (not many by our standards) keystrokes and be given world monopolies, what a joke. Believed by billions, though.

On the one hand it is. Orwell's imagination worked fine but he wrote just 1984, not 2010. OTOH, we are not the only ones who can be taken by surprise...

Don, I was talking more literally here :-). At least those largish BGAs are large enough to incorporate an antenna (like in those SD wifi cards etc.), doing JTAG over that - or whatever, to get complete control over the silicon if it runs uncontrolled software - is trivial. May be I am again overtaken by reality assuming this is something of the future... ? :-)

Dimiter

------------------------------------------------------ Dimiter Popoff Transgalactic Instruments

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If I leave my front door unlocked,

would you tell me my front door was unlocked or does that give you a right to see if I have ice cream in my freezer ??

No, there was some "snooping" going on there.

hamilton

As I understand it, the cars are generally in motion as they map things. It would have taken a long time to get Street Views if the cars didn't move. Driving down the street, one can't "archive" much in the time it takes to enter and leave a wifi zone. They were apparently interested in noting the locations of wifi hot spots, which anybody with a laptop can do.

If you broadcast RF, expect strangers to be able to receive it. If you want it to be secure, enable encryption.

What is it, a slow news week?

John

The Enemies of Freedom (tm) could use wireless hotspots to facilitate their evil plans. As it doesn't seem feasible to restrict the access for the variety of reasons, all those places should be accounted for.

VLV

Like people "snoop" radio stations. An unprotected, unencrypted RF broadcast get out into the street. Get used to it.

John

This raises the question as to why your 'friend' (the employee) simply typed in a password without telling you that you were on their neighbor's unprotected network, which that employee would _no doubt_ have known.

Your analogy fails. They didn't enter your home illegally.

e:

So you maintain their claim it was "by mistake" is plausible and not an arrogant joke. Come on, John, I am sure you know better.

If there is any news in that it is the fact they have been caught, not that they have been doing it (on behalf of whatever agency etc.). Someone has been sloppy. That much is also obvious to you, I am pretty sure.

Dimiter

ote:

So it is OK if they sit beneath your open window and snoop what you are saying. Hmm. Never thought of it, I don't care much about being snooped (the snoops don;t have the brains to understand the stuff which is really of interest here). So as an analogy you would say it is acceptable to drive cars around with directed mikes and record whatever can be overheard through any window, do I understand you correctly?

Dimiter

As I wrote, it did log into their (correct) WLAN but I turned the laptop _off_ during a meeting. Then back on, their WLAN was down for some reason and it linked onto another WLAN. In the heat of the game you don't always see that the li'l message box shows another network when both of them have some cryptic name that you aren't familiar with.

A radio station has a license to broadcast, their advertisers want you to "snoop".

But, I see you want it both ways.

If someone used your wireless with out your knowledge you would sue or at least be real pissed off.

The guy that did not know enough to lock down his WiFi, the manufacture did not feel it necessary to make it simple for users.

This is new territory, and private property is private property.

So don't ridicule a user that is not a computer expert.

But, back to Google.

Google knows there are people who do not have the skills to keep there cheap hardware properly locked down.

Google knows how to manipulate the internet in way we as simple users still do not know.

How does a car driving by at 30 mile an hour have the time to stop and snoop.

The job was to snoop any open WiFi they find, end of story.

hamilton

It's certainly not illegal entry. Perhaps theft of services, but the homeowner isn't the loser, in that case.

If you're stupid enough to believe that, I guess it figures.