This is truly alarming. Soon, Google will know exactly what type of breasts I prefer.

As a Google employee, I can see that someone searched for "big boobs with dark areolas and clothespins on the nipples" 28 times yesterday. What the hell is wrong with you?

Google keeps staring at me when i'm bathing

/creepy

Sock Ruh Tease: As a Google employee, I can see that someone searched for "big boobs with dark areolas and clothespins on the nipples" 28 times yesterday. What the hell is wrong with you?

Maybe they were interrupted 27 times and dont have history enabled?

Sock Ruh Tease: ?

I'm sorry, someone else must have been using my computer. My porn searches usually aren't that dull.

Sweet baby jeezus. you're broadcasting you're data over a 20 yard radius with no encryption and blame google. if i leave my house unlocked and i get robbed, do you think the insurance company will pat me on the head and sort it all out for me?

Claka: Sweet baby jeezus. you're broadcasting you're data over a 20 yard radius with no encryption and blame google. if i leave my house unlocked and i get robbed, do you think the insurance company will pat me on the head and sort it all out for me?

No, but it probably is fair to be annoyed at the burglar.

Claka: Sweet baby jeezus. you're broadcasting you're data over a 20 yard radius with no encryption and blame google. if i leave my house unlocked and i get robbed, do you think the insurance company will pat me on the head and sort it all out for me?

That's kind of a bad analogy because a robber still has to decide to do some robbing and make an effort to get into your house.

This is like keeping the curtains wide open and getting upset that people look into your house.

I think it will all end when the street view drivers are arrested for identity theft and the cars are impounded and (minus the identity theft equipment) sold . Ta Da.

Claka: Sweet baby jeezus. you're broadcasting you're data over a 20 yard radius with no encryption and blame google. if i leave my house unlocked and i get robbed, do you think the insurance company will pat me on the head and sort it all out for me?

Give me the names of your grammar teachers. I want to hunt them down and smack all of them.

Lando Lincoln: Claka: Sweet baby jeezus. you're broadcasting you're data over a 20 yard radius with no encryption and blame google. if i leave my house unlocked and i get robbed, do you think the insurance company will pat me on the head and sort it all out for me?

Give me the names of your grammar teachers. I want to hunt them down and smack all of them.

grammar i care not for. it's bad speeling that gets my goat.

St_Francis_P: This is truly alarming. Soon, Google will know exactly what type of breasts I prefer.

I would think that's a good thing.

Fubini: Claka: Sweet baby jeezus. you're broadcasting you're data over a 20 yard radius with no encryption and blame google. if i leave my house unlocked and i get robbed, do you think the insurance company will pat me on the head and sort it all out for me?

That's kind of a bad analogy because a robber still has to decide to do some robbing and make an effort to get into your house.

This is like keeping the curtains wide open and getting upset that people look into your house.

Actually, it's more like fitting a titantron to your roof, and linking it to a live webcam inside your house. THEN complaining.

I like to think that Google has some kind of "WTF?" folder--like the apocryphal X-ray folder that all hospitals supposedly keep. And it makes me smile that I could be adding whole sections to that folder every time I spend an afternoon online.

Better yet, I hope I can get some jaded Google drone to prairie dog in a sea of cubicles with the exclamation "WHAT THE HELL?!?! EVERYONE GET OVER HERE--YOU GOTTA SEE WHAT THIS ASSHOLE IS SEARCHING FOR!!!"

/It's like a badge of honor.

Claka: Lando Lincoln: Claka: Sweet baby jeezus. you're broadcasting you're data over a 20 yard radius with no encryption and blame google. if i leave my house unlocked and i get robbed, do you think the insurance company will pat me on the head and sort it all out for me?

Give me the names of your grammar teachers. I want to hunt them down and smack all of them.

grammar i care not for. it's bad speeling that gets my goat.

Also, could you point out my grammatical errors for me please.

If you're running an open wifi network, Google sniffing packets off of it is the least of your worries.

Your neighbors are a much more serious concern.

Claka: grammar i care not for. it's bad speeling that gets my goat. gote.
Also, could you point out my grammatical errors for me please.

sorry, pet peave. Please spell your pet's names correctly.

Claka: Sweet baby jeezus. you're broadcasting you're data over a 20 yard radius with no encryption and blame google. if i leave my house unlocked and i get robbed, do you think the insurance company will pat me on the head and sort it all out for me?

My question is this: if they are mapping streets using cameras, why the fark are they wardriving in the first place? Does collecting unencrypted data somehow improve the quality of their photos? I think not.

People not encrypting their data is one thing, but actively collecting it just because you can is creepy. It's not something Google should be doing in the first place.

I hope they like video games and cartoons, then.

Ceiling Google watches you masturbate.

grokca: Ceiling Google watches you masturbate.

In all fairness, it is usually pretty impressive.

/remembers thinking google would become the most evil company in the world back in 2003 or so

I try to block scripts coming from google anymore.

/google-analytics - dead
//googletagservices - dead
///google-Niedermayer - dead

Slackfumasta: My question is this: if they are mapping streets using cameras, why the fark are they wardriving in the first place? Does collecting unencrypted data somehow improve the quality of their photos? I think not.

People not encrypting their data is one thing, but actively collecting it just because you can is creepy. It's not something Google should be doing in the first place.

They wardrive to collect the SSID and MAC address of wireless routers and their signal strength from known locations (determined by GPS). This is the basis of things like the Google Location Services, which allow software like browsers (or devices like phones) to determine their location using wifi signals. Firefox uses this method.

Using Google Street View cars to do this is excellent, as they're already driving around everywhere with a GPS receiver (so as to position images correctly) and adding a wifi receiver is easy.

Google stated that their intention was not to collect payload information from unencrypted wireless networks and that doing so was inadvertent.

Considering the information that people willingly give them, what possible reason would they have for intentionally snagging fragments of wifi payload data from the air? The car would only be in range of a particular transmitter for a few seconds at most.

/secure your wifi people, it's not hard

People willingly, at times eagerly, surrender this information. But there is a price: the loss of control

Here... let me post my social security number, mother's maiden name, father's year of birth, and the bank account I use and see what happens. Ready?

...Oh, wait. I forgot I'm smart and don't post stuff publically that I don't want anyone in the the world to know.

Slackfumasta: People not encrypting their data is one thing, but actively collecting it just because you can is creepy.

Creepy? That's a strange term. Creepy usually means doing something to actively stalk or spy on an individual.

Google merely wants as much publically available data possible. Seriously, they don't care what porn you're viewing as an individual.

I have zero problem with this. If you're broadcasting- in any way- information about yourself, let them collect it. Its not hard to hide if you're not inclined to have it collected.

Claka:

Sweet baby jeezus. you're broadcasting you're data over a 20 yard radius with no encryption and blame google. if i leave my house unlocked and i get robbed, do you think the insurance company will pat me on the head and sort it all out for me?

I was just going to say something very much like that. This is why I almost never use wifi, "secured" or not, and I certainly never use wifi for anything private or sensitive.

You might argue that when I use a library's wired-on computers (maybe 6 times a year) I'm making myself vulnerable to their admins and the systems' "quirks" but I watch myself on those things too.

And there are some things I don't even do from my DSL connection at home, like search (Google!) for "how to build a suitcase bomb to spread child pornography for Allah."

I've heard of something called VPN (link) and I'm going to learn how to do it. Just in case, you know: you never know when my Reptilian overlords might instruct me to overthrow the government and feed them fricaseed Creationists.

I'm sorry, but I could not care less about Street View cars connecting to open wi-fi networks.

Unless Ceiling Google is watching me masturbate, I don't care.

Sock Ruh Tease: As a Google employee, I can see that someone searched for "big boobs with dark areolas and clothespins on the nipples" 28 times yesterday. What the hell is wrong with you?

Eh, give it a try. You might like it.

TheAlgebraist: Claka: Sweet baby jeezus. you're broadcasting you're data over a 20 yard radius with no encryption and blame google. if i leave my house unlocked and i get robbed, do you think the insurance company will pat me on the head and sort it all out for me?

No, but it probably is fair to be annoyed at the burglar.

Except the burglar analogy isn't even close. It's like you put your brand new tv on the curb overnight and then are shocked that it's home the next morning.

Our standing on your porch yelling and then getting outraged that someone write down what you said.

heypete: Slackfumasta: My question is this: if they are mapping streets using cameras, why the fark are they wardriving in the first place? Does collecting unencrypted data somehow improve the quality of their photos? I think not.

People not encrypting their data is one thing, but actively collecting it just because you can is creepy. It's not something Google should be doing in the first place.

They wardrive to collect the SSID and MAC address of wireless routers and their signal strength from known locations (determined by GPS). This is the basis of things like the Google Location Services, which allow software like browsers (or devices like phones) to determine their location using wifi signals. Firefox uses this method.

Using Google Street View cars to do this is excellent, as they're already driving around everywhere with a GPS receiver (so as to position images correctly) and adding a wifi receiver is easy.

Google stated that their intention was not to collect payload information from unencrypted wireless networks and that doing so was inadvertent.

Considering the information that people willingly give them, what possible reason would they have for intentionally snagging fragments of wifi payload data from the air? The car would only be in range of a particular transmitter for a few seconds at most.

/secure your wifi people, it's not hard

Securing wifi just means that it's not readily readable. There is nothing stopping them from collecting the data and decrypting it later. Also, if they are collecting location data, why do they still keep the non-related data?

Very shady.

FTA: "Google argued that its data scooping was legal in the United States. But it told regulators it could not show them the data it collected, because to do so might be breaking privacy and wiretapping laws."

I love Google's argument. It is legal for them to collect and view this data, and use it for whatever they want. But it would be breaking privacy laws to then show it to the government regulators whose job it is to enforce those privacy laws.

no they haven't...its encrypted...they gathered crap people basically "broadcast". For example - if you are on a fisher price toy walkie talkie and you send out something on that band to your buddy...there's no guarantee that someone else can't or won't pick it up and record it...similar to conventional cell phones where the data is only encrypted at the router or a cordless phone in your home...its broadcasting and you probably don't even think about it.

I'll bet with minimal effort anyone can to to their neighbors (legally) what google did.

Lusiphur: Except the burglar analogy isn't even close. It's like you put your brand new tv on the curb overnight and then are shocked that it's home the next morning.

See, this is why touchscreen typing sucks ass: when typos are poorly auto-"corrected," they're far more likely to result in something that's still syntactically or even semantically sound, and thus harder for the reader to correct in their head. If you had typed "shocked that it's gome the next morning" I wouldn't have had to look twice.

Yankees Team Gynecologist: Lusiphur: Except the burglar analogy isn't even close. It's like you put your brand new tv on the curb overnight and then are shocked that it's home the next morning.

See, this is why touchscreen typing sucks ass: when typos are poorly auto-"corrected," they're far more likely to result in something that's still syntactically or even semantically sound, and thus harder for the reader to correct in their head. If you had typed "shocked that it's gome the next morning" I wouldn't have had to look twice.

Yeah, was going to post an update with correction, but subway went underground.

Lusiphur: Yeah, was going to post an update with correction, but subway went underground.

I'm not blaming you at all, just the direction smartphones have gone. (And mostly tongue-in-cheek.) I blame Apple. Sorry for the threadjack.

TDBoedy: no they haven't...its encrypted...they gathered crap people basically "broadcast". For example - if you are on a fisher price toy walkie talkie and you send out something on that band to your buddy...there's no guarantee that someone else can't or won't pick it up and record it...similar to conventional cell phones where the data is only encrypted at the router or a cordless phone in your home...its broadcasting and you probably don't even think about it.

I'll bet with minimal effort anyone can to to their neighbors (legally) what google did.

I'm pretty sure that if there's any encryption at all, even weak stuff like WEP or GSM, it's illegal to decrypt it. Yes, I know you might argue that the signals are broadcast out there, so what's wrong with capturing it and doing whatever you want with them? Something about "reasonable expectation of privacy." Maybe a farker with a GED in law can speak more on this.

I say we fine them another backbreaking 25k

Slackfumasta: Securing wifi just means that it's not readily readable. There is nothing stopping them from collecting the data and decrypting it later.

Perhaps, but why would they want to?

Is Google *really* that concerned about a tiny fragment of one's wireless traffic (encrypted or not) that they pick up on occasional journeys through one's neighborhood (like every six months, at maximum)? They get far more useful information from one's search behavior, Gmail usage, etc., all services that people willingly sign up for.

Seriously, picking up a small snippet of wireless payload data from various hotspots isn't really all that valuable or useful to a company like Google. What possible reason would they have for doing such a thing?

Also, if they are collecting location data, why do they still keep the non-related data?

If you believe their official explanation (and I really see no reason why one shouldn't, but that's just me) they collected the unencrypted payload data by mistake, discovered this fact, and decided to openly work with appropriate third parties (e.g. government agencies responsible for consumer privacy) to ensure that the data was deleted correctly and in accordance with applicable laws as opposed to just deleting the data outright and sweeping the whole incident under the rug.

Very shady.

Not really, if you think about it.

heypete: Not really, if you think about it.

Arg. Preview exists for a reason.

I let google know what kind of porn I look at.
I let google know what technologies and social information I look at.
I let google know what chemicals I'm using and what knowledge I don't have.

Its all cool.

on the other hand:

I refuse to use a Subway "club" card. If my insurance company wants to know what I'm eating they can damned well pay my bank to find out.

TDBoedy: no they haven't...its encrypted...they gathered crap people basically "broadcast". For example - if you are on a fisher price toy walkie talkie and you send out something on that band to your buddy...there's no guarantee that someone else can't or won't pick it up and record it...similar to conventional cell phones where the data is only encrypted at the router or a cordless phone in your home...its broadcasting and you probably don't even think about it.

I'll bet with minimal effort anyone can to to their neighbors (legally) what google did.

No, actually, that is illegal. There's a reason the average guy on the street can't buy a scanner or radio receiver of any sort that can listen in on the cell phone frequencies, a handcuffs and jail kind of reason.

Go on to record someone speaking without their permission, someone who knows the law, and you may find out in a courtroom just how wrong you are.

Diogenes Teufelsdrockh: TDBoedy: no they haven't...its encrypted...they gathered crap people basically "broadcast". For example - if you are on a fisher price toy walkie talkie and you send out something on that band to your buddy...there's no guarantee that someone else can't or won't pick it up and record it...similar to conventional cell phones where the data is only encrypted at the router or a cordless phone in your home...its broadcasting and you probably don't even think about it.

I'll bet with minimal effort anyone can to to their neighbors (legally) what google did.

No, actually, that is illegal. There's a reason the average guy on the street can't buy a scanner or radio receiver of any sort that can listen in on the cell phone frequencies, a handcuffs and jail kind of reason.

Go on to record someone speaking without their permission, someone who knows the law, and you may find out in a courtroom just how wrong you are.

Citation? You can record people against their will all you like as long as it is in public, to the best of my knowledge. Depending on the state, the recordings may not be admissible as evidence in court, but it is not illegal to record in public.

Do these articles actually surprise anyone anymore? Google rapes your privacy, always has done, always will. If you want to use their services, spread 'em.

Nrokreffefp: Diogenes Teufelsdrockh: TDBoedy: no they haven't...its encrypted...they gathered crap people basically "broadcast". For example - if you are on a fisher price toy walkie talkie and you send out something on that band to your buddy...there's no guarantee that someone else can't or won't pick it up and record it...similar to conventional cell phones where the data is only encrypted at the router or a cordless phone in your home...its broadcasting and you probably don't even think about it.

I'll bet with minimal effort anyone can to to their neighbors (legally) what google did.

No, actually, that is illegal. There's a reason the average guy on the street can't buy a scanner or radio receiver of any sort that can listen in on the cell phone frequencies, a handcuffs and jail kind of reason.

Go on to record someone speaking without their permission, someone who knows the law, and you may find out in a courtroom just how wrong you are.

Citation? You can record people against their will all you like as long as it is in public, to the best of my knowledge. Depending on the state, the recordings may not be admissible as evidence in court, but it is not illegal to record in public.

In Illinois, it is illegal to make a recording of a police officer, in public, performing his duties. It is considered felony wiretapping by state law.

Now, i'm not sure how constitutional that is, on the other hand...

Claka: Claka: Lando Lincoln: Claka: Sweet baby jeezus. you're broadcasting you're data over a 20 yard radius with no encryption and blame google. if i leave my house unlocked and i get robbed, do you think the insurance company will pat me on the head and sort it all out for me?

Give me the names of your grammar teachers. I want to hunt them down and smack all of them.

grammar i care not for. it's bad speeling that gets my goat.

Also, could you point out my grammatical errors for me please.

Sure.

Here's what you typed:

Sweet baby jeezus. you're broadcasting you're data over a 20 yard radius with no encryption and blame google. if i leave my house unlocked and i get robbed, do you think the insurance company will pat me on the head and sort it all out for me?

Here's what you should have typed:

Sweet baby Jesus. You're broadcasting your data over a 20-yard radius with no encryption and blame Google? If I leave my house unlocked and I get robbed, do you think the insurance company will pat me on the head and sort it all out for me?

I swear when I search for Black Bottom Cream Pie, I'm looking for the dessert.

Has nobody Googled 'Google Dorks'..?

/duh