Google Admits Streetview Cars Collected "Entire Emails, URLs and Passwords"

http://www.securityweek.com/google-admits-streetview-cars-collecting-entire-emails-urls-and-passwords

by privacyguru • 16 years ago

24 31 16 years ago

cryptoz3• 16 years ago

FTA:

> their investigations revealed that some incredibly private information was harvested in some cases.

Well now, slow down. If someone transmits information into the public airspace in a public street, that data can no longer be referred to as private.

If Google had been breaking WEP while they drove along they would be violating people's "reasonable expectations" of their privacy. But there's no reasonable expectation of privacy if you're broadcasting radio signals that contain your passwords. That's just dumb.

misterm• 16 years ago

Why were they collecting this information in the first place? I don't understand how they could just accidentally grab passwords.

mkr-hn• 16 years ago

Because the data is there. If you're collecting it without filtering, you don't have a choice.

scrrr2• 16 years ago

I'm speculating, but I suppose value from this data can be anything from geographically locating ip-addresses to improve location based services to wireless-router manufacturer statistics.

Construct2• 16 years ago

They weren't specifically collecting this information. They were collecting packets that happened to come their way. Combine enough packets, and in some cases you'll find emails and URLs and password.

timcederman• 16 years ago

It's because they reused some code to grab the MAC addresses, which was also grabbing packets (which it shouldn't have).

privacyguru3• 16 years ago

Story says "Google collected the data as a result of code integrated into the software used to identify and map WiFi signals. Google says the code was developed in 2006 by an engineer working on an experimental WiFi project that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast WiFi data. That coded ended up on the systems that power the data collection of the Street View cars."

privacyguru3• 16 years ago

Cryptoz -- I agree, all public data once it is broadcasted. But as the article says "While the data was technically broadcasted to the public and anyone with the know-how and appropriate gear could collect the same information, it would be hard for anyone to collect such data on the massive scale that Google did." -- Google should have known better. Someone knew what data they were collecting.

And yes, people should have secured their wireless routers.

randomtask2• 16 years ago

> it would be hard for anyone to collect such data on the massive scale that Google did

So collecting that information is only unethical when done on a large scale?

cdavid5• 16 years ago

I cannot say for the legal implications, but surely, just because you don't hide something does not mean anyone can do anything from it, if only from an ethical point of view. There are many situations where you would not want everyone to know some of your actions, even though you do no actively hide them. Something as simple as what you are watching on TV, or which way your kids go to school, etc...

cryptoz3• 16 years ago

I disagree actually. The thing is, open WiFi is the same thing as taking a radio transmitter and transmitting your passwords to the world outside.

It's not that people didn't go to the trouble of hiding it. It's that people are (essentially, figuratively) loudly shouting their secrets for the world to hear.

jtbigwoo2• 16 years ago

I disagree. Just because I leave my shades open doesn't give you the right to stand in the street and take pictures of my family through the window. After all, I'm allowing the broadcast images of myself through electromagnetic radiation (visible light.)

cynest• 16 years ago

The problem with this analogy is that Google had no intent of invading privacy. If you leave your shades open and someone starts taking pictures of the inside of your house, they are breaking your reasonable expectation of privacy. If someone happens to glance at and see the insides of your house for a split second, they are not necessarily invading your reasonable expectation of privacy.

bradleyland• 16 years ago

I'm not certain about this, but I'm pretty sure that in the US, you do have the right to take photos of people through the window, even when they're in their homes. Whatever is visible from the street (a public place) is fair game.

Having said that, I know there were some recent cases where this was brought in to question. I just don't know what the outcome was. Also, different countries obviously have varying views on this topic.

Construct2• 16 years ago

This quote is taken out of context. Google was not specifically collecting emails, URLs, and passwords. They were collecting packets. Collect enough packets, and you will wind up with emails, URLs, and passwords in the data.

From the article, from Alan Eustace's (Senior VP Research & Engineering) quote:

>It’s clear from those inspections that while most of the data is fragmentary, in some instances entire emails and URLs were captured, as well as passwords.

scrrr2• 16 years ago

This makes Google a white-hat hacker that shows a security problem. I've just been to Spain and was able to connect to unencrypted wifi spots on almost every street-corner with my phone.

code_duck• 16 years ago

So, these people should be using secure wireless. If I have a loudspeaker playing my phone call into the air, I wouldn't complain that someone else heard it. If I taped a giant banner with my email into the side of my house, someone might take a photo.

If Google cracked my WEP key or something, that would be notable.

eli• 16 years ago

It's a pity that this is the digital privacy case that the media and politicians decided to run with.

There are legitimate unanswered questions about what privacy means in an increasingly networked world... but what to do with personal information broadcasted in the clear and recorded by accident is not one of them.

Google Admits Streetview Cars Collected "Entire Emails, URLs and Passwords"

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