Google sued for Wi-Fi theft

http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...with_class_action_lawsuit_over_Wi_Fi_snooping

What is it with these people who promise to do no harm! What were they thinking?! It would have been a good public service to state how many open Wi-Fis there are. Hope here comes the chopping block!

 

I just love that bit where the article says the people suing Google have not encrypted their wireless, and the article then goes on to say that the woman does a lot of company work over the wireless, which is subject to her company's security policy and non-disclosure agreement, both of which I bet she has broken by not even trying to secure her wireless. Some people are just silly. I wouldn't be surprised if she gets fired now.

 

Neither do I when I am at home. But I do have a road very near by, and a layby where crackers could sit in a car and not look suspicious at all.

 

Google street view is freaky enough and borderline invasion of privacy without wi-fi snooping as well.

Would make and interesting poll to see what people think.

 

I'm with collinsl . . . what is it with people who don't secure their systems when there is a possibility of someone driving by and accessing it? :confused

Gee, let me put my prized whatzit in the window for all to see, and leave my house totally unsecured . . . lah de dah . . . What the heck!? My prized whatzit has been stolen? Someone is going to pay!!!!! rolleyes

True that . . . It was kinda freaky to see my house with my truck parked in front on Google like that. Such detail. Handy in a way, though - we had a friend coming from Camby in England, and she had never seen our house before . . . we gave her the address and she checked it out via google street view, and recognized right off when she arrived in town and saw it!

Still, kinda creepy . . .

 

Personally I think they should rename StreetView to RoadView an only use it outside of purely residential areas. I found it very useful recently to review a proposed route through the rockies re tunnel heights, and I would be sorry to see it go. However, it is not right to use it to snoop wi-fi data or invade home privacy.

 

Interesting points made in the article thanks.When I first saw Street view I was in a group and I said out loud its illegal to show someone's face and so we zoomed in and obviously the faces are blurred out,but!It didn't stop any of identifying the people in the street there was one lady for example who was in her garden and a few people commented on how much weight she had put on,legally the photos can't be used as evidence she has put on weight but it doesn't stop people who can put a face to a body criticising her.

Another example a house who had just been renovated with new double glazing windows and doors costing a couple of thousand which gives anyone who can use a computer knowledge of that persons finances for whatever reason and can give double glazing companies knowledge of where to target door to door sales when combined with reverse directories.

Another one I thought of were satellite dishes on peoples houses,even silly things like the state of the garden or lawn could be used in the future for reasons we can't even contemplate now.

 

I agree with Schmidt a search engine has no use knowing what websites people are visiting or what other search engines are being used rolleyes

You can guarantee no one at Google would have any interest in this information...

 

I've seen in a video that at Google HQ they have a projector in the ceiling projecting onto a piece of glass all the searches that are being made. Therefore anyone in HQ can walk past and see what people are searching for. It is not identifiable, but it could easily be made to be.

 

I find that's the scariest thing with regard to Google they control so much valuable information on peoples wants and desires,interests ect.ect. and are so dominant in the market place they literally know what's hot and what's not before the world does.

Wanna know which business's are a good investment before the stock market does? Just see what people are searching for,wanna change which business's are a good investment?Just change the search algorithm to benefit one of your choice,already the corruption temptation is almost palpable.

Now imagine you could gather private information on practically every household that doesn't use your business or search engine and correlate that data with that already collected,it doesn't bear thinking about how much power they could gain,its like getting inside information on all of your competitors and inside the head of all your clients in one swoop and the only reassurance we have is that they are incorruptible.

Somehow I don't think typing Lucius Fox into Googles data banks will start a self destruct timer when they've had a peak at it.