Google Has Mapped Every WiFi Network in Britain

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What was that company motto again? It’s on the tip of my tongue…something about not being evil. Yeah, Google is doing a great job trying to maintain that image. :rolleyes:

Every WiFi wireless router – the device that links most computer owners to the internet - in every home has been entered into a Google database. The information was collected by radio aerials on their Street View cars, which have now photographed almost every home in the country.
 
HOLD THE PHONES!

You mean to say that information that was already accessible to any miscreant has been logged by a corporation? Madness! /s

If you have any privacy concerns, you should be thanking Google for bring this to light, not damning them for cataloging public, yet sensitive, information.
 
I'm really over hearing stories about this. ITS AN ACCESS POINT!?!? WHO CARES, ANYONE WITH A LAPTOP CAN SEE IT.

You that worried about privacy then cancel every service you own and move out into a shack in the middle of the woods.

Your cable company tracks everything you watch, ISP keeps track of what you access, your cell company tracks your phone calls, your power company tracks your consumption. Hell my car key fob tells the damn dealership if I wasnt buckled up when i take the damn thing in for service.

This kind of thing is all around us, deal with it or stop using the services. Simple as that.
 
I thinkn this is good because it might make people think of securing their wifi
 
I'm really over hearing stories about this. ITS AN ACCESS POINT!?!? WHO CARES, ANYONE WITH A LAPTOP CAN SEE IT.

Actually, they DID snag peoples info, e-mail, and other sensitive info... they claimed it was a mistake...but then refused to delete it.

They could avoid all this hassle by simply saying "oops" and then delete the data as requested by the countries calling for it to be deleted. Why would Google fight to keep info they claim was "accidentally" siphoned?
 
I don't see the issue here, so what?

Sounds like governments are complaining so they can fine a huge company money....
 
Sounds to me, from reading that article, that they were requested NOT to delete the data:
"A number of authorities, including those in Britain and the US, have asked Google to retain the downloaded emails pending a full inquiry"
It seems pretty ridiculous to me that people are up in arms about them mapping Wireless networks is such a big deal. Anyone with a laptop or smartphone can drive by and get the same data without difficulty. I can understand the problem people have with them 'accidentally' getting more data than just the SSID etc. but- What the HECK are people doing with UNSECURED WIFI??? I beleive the real thing that NEEDS to happen is that routers need to come with the default settings SECURE rather than the default settings totally UNSECURED. Put a generic password in there, and force the user to change it the first time they connect to set it up. Its the same issue as the people getting hit with lawsuits when their unsecured WIFI was used by someone else to download illegal media.
 
the real solution to securing wifi access points/routers/etc. is so extremely simple, i'm surprised no one (or not many) companies are doing it already. simply set the default password to that of the serial number of the device in question, which ONLY the person who has physical access to the device has access to. that will keep anyone from being able to guess the password with any regularity, and the customer can still login to the device and change it to whatever they want later on. if they reset the device back to its defaults, it gets reset to the serial # again, so all you have to do is look on the sticker on the bottom of the device again to recover it. if the user changes it to a stupid, easy-to-guess or easy-to-crack password at a later time, it's all on them, and the company has covered their ass.

if this were to happen, what the hell would it matter if someone were to catalogue every AP in the world? :rolleyes:
 
the real solution to securing wifi access points/routers/etc. is so extremely simple, i'm surprised no one (or not many) companies are doing it already. simply set the default password to that of the serial number of the device in question, which ONLY the person who has physical access to the device has access to. that will keep anyone from being able to guess the password with any regularity, and the customer can still login to the device and change it to whatever they want later on. if they reset the device back to its defaults, it gets reset to the serial # again, so all you have to do is look on the sticker on the bottom of the device again to recover it. if the user changes it to a stupid, easy-to-guess or easy-to-crack password at a later time, it's all on them, and the company has covered their ass.

if this were to happen, what the hell would it matter if someone were to catalogue every AP in the world? :rolleyes:
Sounds like a great idea! Problem is, I expect getting the serial number into the firmware of each device would be a tad trickier than just stamping it on the plastic casing as it rumbles down the assembly line...
 
Sounds like a great idea! Problem is, I expect getting the serial number into the firmware of each device would be a tad trickier than just stamping it on the plastic casing as it rumbles down the assembly line...

Can't be too hard, 2Wire devices already do this.
 
Google is the NSA fyi. It is basically a front company for data collection for all the 3 letter agencies of the government.
 
Every network? Pfft, this is one job that will never be complete. :p

I mean there are new ones popping up all over the place, and old ones moving around with their owners and what not. Ok, I'm sure this is overly obvious to all of you, but just saying, I don't think it's possible to get *every* network. Still impressive. I'm genuinely curious as to what percentage of these were unsecured.
 
Every network? Pfft, this is one job that will never be complete. :p

I mean there are new ones popping up all over the place, and old ones moving around with their owners and what not. Ok, I'm sure this is overly obvious to all of you, but just saying, I don't think it's possible to get *every* network. Still impressive. I'm genuinely curious as to what percentage of these were unsecured.

A lot i'd guess. My uncle writes down the address whenever he passes one so he can hook into it the next time he's in the area :D
 
Actually, they DID snag peoples info, e-mail, and other sensitive info... they claimed it was a mistake...but then refused to delete it.

They could avoid all this hassle by simply saying "oops" and then delete the data as requested by the countries calling for it to be deleted. Why would Google fight to keep info they claim was "accidentally" siphoned?

Ok so they snagged data that was unsecured to begin with... If you are doing something you want secured encrypt your access point. If you are in a public place and doing something you want secured SSH into a private system of your own and route your traffic through it.

Now if google starts breaking access point encryption while driving around then I would be worried.
 
Sounds like a great idea! Problem is, I expect getting the serial number into the firmware of each device would be a tad trickier than just stamping it on the plastic casing as it rumbles down the assembly line...

only for the lazy companies who don't give a crap

Can't be too hard, 2Wire devices already do this.

case in point
 
Anyone else find it ironic that Britain, the capital of cameras capturing your every move, seems to have the biggest problem with street view?
 
Anyone else find it ironic that Britain, the capital of cameras capturing your every move, seems to have the biggest problem with street view?

Because big brother doesn't want other big brothers on his turf.
 
The EU is just foaming at the mouth cause we are finally holding one of their companies by the balls (British Petroleum).....so now they need to find another big bad America company to lay blame and fine the everliving snot out of.
 
there is public lists with passwords for many wifi's on the net.
There is quite a few wardrivers around, i currently drive a saab with a pc that cracks loads of wifi's on the fly and uploads them, god knows where, not my car :p
Got a small cute antenna on the top and a SFF pc in the trunk, used for multimedia aswell.

It isnt google i'd be worried about, wud be the kind of people i loan the car from....
 
The EU is just foaming at the mouth cause we are finally holding one of their companies by the balls (British Petroleum).....

I suggest you stop squeezing so hard because they are making a right mess of your coast line.
 
I kinda like the mess, more profits for the company i work for, direct competitor for the people who had their equipment messed up.
 
So what

#1 if you have an open router more fool you
#2 from my living room I can see ~ 20 access points (most WPA2, a couple WEP and one that drifts into my range every now and again that is open)... There is no way to know what router is for what house, except for the muppet that named his router his Sirname...
 
The EU is just foaming at the mouth cause we are finally holding one of their companies by the balls (British Petroleum).....so now they need to find another big bad America company to lay blame and fine the everliving snot out of.

fyi it was the lack of American legislation that is partly to blame here
BP have been doing rig drilling for years. The british north sea has loads of rigs.

relief wells are mandatory in Canada (but not in the US, yet US are foaming that BP want to implement something that was regulated to reduce such problems...).
Likewise cutoff valves: european models are gravity-driven (large block of concrete held up by an electromagnet) so they are fail-safe - if anything goes wrong they force-close. The US models are fail-dead, you need to manually shut them down.

Also there were at least to accidents in the last weeks that were reported one on a venezuelan platform, one on a norwegian iirc Both did not have any side-effects as the safety systems kicked in.

Also that drilling company also had this little incident in the past, Ixtoc I, On 3 June 1979, the well suffered a blowout resulting in the second largest oil spill and the largest accidental spill in history. wow, 30 years and these donkey-holes didn't learn a thing


And finally: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_Alpha


Basically the rest of the world have reg's inplace to force safety because all these failures are known. No Regs in the US so companies not forced todo it....
a cynic would point out that a stronger regulated ("socialist") country would not allow companies to endanger their citizens like that
 
Actually, they DID snag peoples info, e-mail, and other sensitive info... they claimed it was a mistake...but then refused to delete it.

Wouldn't that require that wireless network to be unprotected? I would think WPA2 is secure enough that you can't crack it "by accident"...
 
How is this different than people that make GPS apps that tell people where the cops patrol/sit with radar guns and where the traffic cameras and such are?
 
Steve I would totally understand your concern...but you're on Facebook, the anti-christ of Privacy for christ's sake.
 
How is this different than people that make GPS apps that tell people where the cops patrol/sit with radar guns and where the traffic cameras and such are?

great app for road trips (assuming you have a phone capable of multitasking)
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Wonder how much the government paid them to get this info :)

Why would they have to pay themselves? The NSA and Google are either one and the same or they work so closely now that no one actually working there knows who is NSA or who is original Google.
 
Why would they have to pay themselves? The NSA and Google are either one and the same or they work so closely now that no one actually working there knows who is NSA or who is original Google.
Google is and Google was are two different things! :p
 
As others have said, this is public information anyway, anyone with a laptop can map wireless networks, I don't see this any different from making a map of the landscape or a map of the roads.

That information could be used for nefarious means, in the same way you could use a physical map to target houses to rob which were far away from police stations or isolated. A lot of hot air over nothing, if you have security issues secure your wireless router, or do what I've done and disable wireless all together and cable it all, which is faster anyway.
 
Actually, they DID snag peoples info, e-mail, and other sensitive info... they claimed it was a mistake...but then refused to delete it.

They could avoid all this hassle by simply saying "oops" and then delete the data as requested by the countries calling for it to be deleted. Why would Google fight to keep info they claim was "accidentally" siphoned?

I was under the impression that Google wanted to delete the data and those wanting to sue them for collecting them sought an injunction to prevent Google from deleting the data and destroying what they consider evidence.
 
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