Oopsie! Google ''Accidentally'' Collected WiFi Data

[jalek]

[citation][nom]nebun[/nom]you can disable it, but you have to read the manual...hello...dumb light comes on[/citation]

It also does little for security overall, it's trading one vulnerability for another for windows clients.

 

[hoofhearted]

everyone change their SSID to 'google'

 

[xrodney]

[citation][nom]FenrirXIII[/nom]Is anyone else a little uneasy that they were collecting mac addresses and SSID information while mapping out said data's physical location?This is the kind of thing scam artists and such wish they could have. To make scams more believable. (Hey i'm your neighbor by three blocks and I always noticed bla bla bla...so give me 100$ and all of your other info so I can forward 1million dollars to your account.)But in all seriousness. If google decided to take over the world, the first step to domination is domination of the internet. Now they can hunt you down physically. By MAC address. No spoofing IP's will save us now!!1*tinfoil hat shaped like chrome symbol*[/citation]
Should have secured your wifi in 1st place, what google is doing is mapping free accessible wifi networks.
As for MAC, you are giving your mac address every time you sent packet to network, its inside of it so on network level devices know where it originate and where to send reply, IP is just more visible.
And you can change MAC address of network devices, either software (set mac in windows for network card for example) or hardware (firmware modification).

 

[gmarsack]

I once had payload data in my pants.. had to go change them after Google recorded it. It was rather embarrassing.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

Somehow I'm not really worried about this, and seeing the engineering apology, it almost makes me want to change job. These guys seem motivated in their work, and they seem to have some sort of dignity and moral standard.

 

[reddragon72]

When Google starts busting down doors and sending cops to get our info then I'll be worried.... knock at Apple...

Also Google's search engine and desktop products can gather info from and network regardless of any connection. This is nothing to be worried about.

 

[ssddx]

Paranoid Much?

Perhaps the execs at google really didnt realize they collected a tiny bit of information when scanning for open-wifi. What more could they do to instill confidence in them than to be honest and have a 3rd party security company involved?

As for the scanning: Why not publicy map all public wifi hotspots? This is a great benefit to laptop/netbook owners. If you want your network private, secure it, otherwise people could already be leaching.

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]yao[/nom]still don't know what payload data is..[/citation]

The payload of a packet is the actual raw data that the application sending the packet has put 'on the wire'. The rest of the data added to an Internet packet is mostly overhead needed to get it to it's destination, such as the IP address of where it's going to etc. For an FTP transfer for example, each packet's payload would contain a fragment of the file being transferred over the network.

 

[Guest]

If you really cared about your privacy........you'd be more private. Do you have a facebook page?