Judge: Google Wi-Fi Snooping ''Not An Accident''

[Rart]

Judge: Google Wi-Fi Snooping ''Not An Accident''
June 4, 2010

" Lawyers believe that Google intentionally collected data packets from private networks.


A federal judge in Oregon has ordered Google to turn over the U.S.-based data it siphoned from unsecured Wi-Fi networks by Friday. While Google claims that the sniffing was merely a coding error, the search engine giant currently faces several class action lawsuits from around the country. On a global scale, it's believed that Google's privacy violations were intentional, and now evidence has surfaced to back up those claims.

Brooks Cooper, an Oregon attorney currently suing Google over the Street View dispute, said that "it is our belief that it is not an accident." He pointed to a 2008 Google patent application --aka "776"--that describes "one or more of the methods" Google uses to collect information for Street View. The patent was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in January.

Part of the patent raising a red flag describes a method to increase the accuracy of location-based services. These services would provide advertisers or other parties the location of a mobile phone or other computing devices. User locations are determined by intercepting data and analyzing the timing of transmission.

Naturally Google is disputing the patent's part in the current litigation. A company spokesperson said that patent 776 is unrelated to the software code used to collect Wi-Fi information with Street View cars. A separate statement also indicated that Google files patent applications on a variety of ideas conceived by its engineers. "Some of them mature into real products or services, and some of them don't," the spokesperson said.

Accusations against Google began earlier this year in Germany, as the country grew suspicious that the search engine giant was collecting more than just street information. Google eventually admitted that it had collected packets of information sent over Wi-Fi networks for the past three years, however the company said it was a mistake, blaming a software error. "

Source: Judge: Google Wi-Fi Snooping ''Not An Accident'' Homepage: Tom's Guide

[Tom0102]

I don't see what google would have to benefit from this so maybe it is just a mistake

[slambaz2]

they can find out my location via ip address anyway, so this is a waste of time. And even if they were doing this on purpose (which i doubt, google already knows what you are doing on your computer anyway. When was the last time you searched for something on yahoo?


On an unrelated note, one of my friends does use yahoo, and he actually says "let me yahoo it"

[vwllss]

they can find out my location via ip address anyway, so this is a waste of time.

IP addresses are usually only precise to the city, and even then if you're in a small town it might mark you as a neighboring city. Google uses their research to find more you more precisely for things like directions. Try going to maps.google.com and pressing the button right above the orange man on the left. It didn't work for me, but supposedly for some people it's quite accurate.

[Rart]

I don't see what google would have to benefit from this so maybe it is just a mistake

Collecting millions of users personal usage statistics is a gold mine for marketing

[bobbintb]

From what I understand wasn't just a few wireless packets by people dumb enough to leave their wifi open?

[Burnsy]

Apart from marketing purposes... which no-one with a modicum of common sense cares about anyway... erm... who gives a shit??!!

Are peeps that naive that they don't think the big companies (google etc) know what you're browsing or what you're looking at anyway??!!

[cmd]

Apart from marketing purposes... which no-one with a modicum of common sense cares about anyway... erm... who gives a shit??!!

Are peeps that naive that they don't think the big companies (google etc) know what you're browsing or what you're looking at anyway??!!

that's the information you give them.

[Expeto]

Apart from marketing purposes... which no-one with a modicum of common sense cares about anyway... erm... who gives a shit??!!

Are peeps that naive that they don't think the big companies (google etc) know what you're browsing or what you're looking at anyway??!!

Yes you are right, but they, at least, didn't knew what the fuck we were doing in our local networks, until now... what else? analysing my shit to give me accurate food ads?

And call me naive but, google doesn't know shit about slambaz2 friend. Neither about many other concerned users.