When Google sends its fleet of camera-equipped cars into the streets to snap pictures of your neighborhood for its Street View product, these cars are also coll

When Google sends its fleet of camera-equipped cars into the streets to snap pictures of your neighborhood for its Street View product, these cars are also collecting something a little extra: The name and unique MAC address of every open WiFi network they encounter along the way...That alone is somewhat problematic. For one thing, a network ID could contain personally identifiable information, like your name, or something goofy but potentially embarrassing, like "My Neighbors Suck." What? How is it problematic from a privacy standpoint if Google is recording information that you're literally broadcasting into the ether? And aren't your neighbors most likely to find out by, say, seeing it in their list of nearby hotspots? That's like saying that it's problematic that people take pictures on the street, because you might be wearing a t-shirt that reveals that you dislike the police. If you want that information to be private, don't wear such a t-shirt in public.