4 ms·

This has been going on for years. See wardriving: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardriving http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardriving and Wigle: http://wigle.net/ h

by jancona 16y ago

This has been going on for years. See wardriving: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardriving http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardriving and Wigle: http://wigle.net/ http://wigle.net/ Or is it only a problem when Google does it?

TallGuyShort 16y ago
What I've seen mentioned in several articles about why this is dangerous, is that Google has a unique ability to cross-reference the information with other data on a massive scale. Most war-drivers don't have nearly as much weight behind them.
- grhino 16y ago
  So, if a user has a laptop on a coffee shop wireless network, access to a log of the MAC addresses registered at the coffee shop could be cross referenced with Google's data to find out where that MAC address was at the time the street view car went by. If you assume that the street view car happened by that MAC address while that user was at home, you could then look up the residents and figure out the identity of the user of that MAC address. Honestly, it doesn't concern me that much, but I'm trying to figure out what has other people worried.
tzs 16y ago
The same argument applies to many other things. For instance: "People have been spilling oil and gasoline in their driveways, where it gets washed away and makes it way into the oceans, for years. Or is it only a problem when Exxon does it?" Badness is not all or nothing. It can depend on how widespread something is. Google operates at such a large scale that many things they do can be bad, even if they are not bad when done by individuals.
- jancona 16y ago
  The "when done by individuals" doesn't really apply where the web's involved because it's extremely cheap to harness the efforts of many individuals. I don't know how many access points Google has in their database, but Wigle has over 20 million in theirs, collected by thousands of people on every continent. I don't know how Wigle is funded, but my impression is that they're a pretty low-overhead operation. My point is that if you're concerned about the privacy implications of an access point database, you should be concerned no matter who's putting it together.
TotlolRon 16y ago
> "only a problem when Google does it" Not necessarily. But it is MORE of a problem. Google like to scale. They also scale problems. Globally.

by jancona 16y ago

TallGuyShort 16y ago

What I've seen mentioned in several articles about why this is dangerous, is that Google has a unique ability to cross-reference the information with other data on a massive scale. Most war-drivers don't have nearly as much weight behind them.

grhino 16y ago
So, if a user has a laptop on a coffee shop wireless network, access to a log of the MAC addresses registered at the coffee shop could be cross referenced with Google's data to find out where that MAC address was at the time the street view car went by. If you assume that the street view car happened by that MAC address while that user was at home, you could then look up the residents and figure out the identity of the user of that MAC address. Honestly, it doesn't concern me that much, but I'm trying to figure out what has other people worried.

tzs 16y ago

The same argument applies to many other things. For instance: "People have been spilling oil and gasoline in their driveways, where it gets washed away and makes it way into the oceans, for years. Or is it only a problem when Exxon does it?" Badness is not all or nothing. It can depend on how widespread something is. Google operates at such a large scale that many things they do can be bad, even if they are not bad when done by individuals.

jancona 16y ago
The "when done by individuals" doesn't really apply where the web's involved because it's extremely cheap to harness the efforts of many individuals. I don't know how many access points Google has in their database, but Wigle has over 20 million in theirs, collected by thousands of people on every continent. I don't know how Wigle is funded, but my impression is that they're a pretty low-overhead operation. My point is that if you're concerned about the privacy implications of an access point database, you should be concerned no matter who's putting it together.

TotlolRon 16y ago

> "only a problem when Google does it" Not necessarily. But it is MORE of a problem. Google like to scale. They also scale problems. Globally.