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I don't understand how the actual data being streamed through the WIFI could be useful for anything other than spying. How does knowing what's in the packets ch

I don't understand how the actual data being streamed through the WIFI could be useful for anything other than spying. How does knowing what's in the packets change anything about how they use it for location?

bdonlan 15y ago
It's easier to just collect every packet that passes through your antenna and batch-process it later than to sanitize it in real-time - there's handy off-the-shelf software to do the former.
- Karunamon 15y ago
  That's probably exactly what happened. Every time the privacy chicken littles start up, remind them that Google has precisely no use for the random data passing through each hotspot. None. Nada. It's completely useless to their organization. Junk data to be deleted later.
  - mcguire 15y ago
    Then why store the data? And why would Google refuse to release the data to regulators because "it might break privacy and wiretapping laws if it shared the material?"
    - Karunamon 15y ago
      Because it's automatically stored? Google is still comprised of humans who make mistakes, sometimes horrible ones. Because they were in a pretty bad position once they found out what was happening? I can see an "Oh sh-, we broke the law" moment happening at the highest levels of the organization.
    - drivebyacct2 15y ago
      The answer to this specific question is two replies directly above your comment...
  - mryan 15y ago
    > It's completely useless to their organization. Junk data to be deleted later. At least one person at Google thought it could be potentially useful: > The report, quoting the engineer’s original proposal, gives a somewhat different impression. The data, the engineer wrote, would “be analyzed offline for use in other initiatives.” Google says this was never done. I think Google is guilty of arrogance wrt privacy, rather than a fiendish plan to spy on people.
checkers 15y ago
http://techiest.blogspot.com/ http://techiest.blogspot.com/
tedunangst 15y ago
Let's do it the "right" way. You drive around and collect ssid for each network. Then you discover half of them are "linksys". Oops, should have collected mac address instead. So now you have to drive the trucks around all over again. Or, if you'd saved complete packets, you just analyze them instead. You never know what you're missing until you're missing it.

bdonlan 15y ago

It's easier to just collect every packet that passes through your antenna and batch-process it later than to sanitize it in real-time - there's handy off-the-shelf software to do the former.

Karunamon 15y ago
That's probably exactly what happened. Every time the privacy chicken littles start up, remind them that Google has precisely no use for the random data passing through each hotspot. None. Nada. It's completely useless to their organization. Junk data to be deleted later.
- mcguire 15y ago
  Then why store the data? And why would Google refuse to release the data to regulators because "it might break privacy and wiretapping laws if it shared the material?"
  - Karunamon 15y ago
    Because it's automatically stored? Google is still comprised of humans who make mistakes, sometimes horrible ones. Because they were in a pretty bad position once they found out what was happening? I can see an "Oh sh-, we broke the law" moment happening at the highest levels of the organization.
  - drivebyacct2 15y ago
    The answer to this specific question is two replies directly above your comment...
- mryan 15y ago
  > It's completely useless to their organization. Junk data to be deleted later. At least one person at Google thought it could be potentially useful: > The report, quoting the engineer’s original proposal, gives a somewhat different impression. The data, the engineer wrote, would “be analyzed offline for use in other initiatives.” Google says this was never done. I think Google is guilty of arrogance wrt privacy, rather than a fiendish plan to spy on people.

checkers 15y ago

http://techiest.blogspot.com/ http://techiest.blogspot.com/

tedunangst 15y ago

Let's do it the "right" way. You drive around and collect ssid for each network. Then you discover half of them are "linksys". Oops, should have collected mac address instead. So now you have to drive the trucks around all over again. Or, if you'd saved complete packets, you just analyze them instead. You never know what you're missing until you're missing it.