Google dumps Aussie Wi-Fi data tracking

Google Australia has removed all Wi-Fi equipment from its fleet of Street View cars and has confirmed that it will not be "accidently” collecting any more unencrypted data via the StreetView process. Last year the Privacy Commissioner was forced to investigate how and why Google had collected unencrypted payload data while it …

[Anonymous Coward]

The company hired a new director of privacy...

...new? I wasn't aware there was already someone failing miserably in this job before.

[Martin 47]

Thats OK

What the google spokesman forgot to say was;

'we don't need the data any more as its been superseded by all the information we collect from mobile phone handsets'

[Anonymous Coward]

I love it that they still claim this to be an accident..

From the documentation they state their Streetview car software update will remove (I quote) "gslite, gstumbler, Kismet, Wireshark and tcpdump". WTF?

I call BS on the whole "oopsie, 'twas an accident" line - what they casually omit is that for data collection to be effective it also has to be stored, so a back end had to be readied too. They either did this deliberately, or their software development process sucks seven ways to Sunday.

Oh, and as for "we won't do it anymore" - as I mentioned before, their answers in Canada were telling: point 47 of http://www.priv.gc.ca/media/nr-c/2010/let_101019_e.cfm.

Yup, they do no evil, as they simply outsource it. To you.

[Tim Bates]

Privacy nutters win...

The privacy nutjobs and people who are clueless win again. Hooray for loud angry clueless yelling.

Simple rule for those who still don't get it - if you want it private, keep it behind closed doors. If you go outside (or let your network wander outside), then you lose your right to privacy.

[gef05]

Thank goodness

They must have worked hard to identify what part of the software was responsible for maliciously and clandestinely capturing the unencrypted data. Hopefully the system wont again spontaneously write code that can capture such info. BAD CODE, DOWN I SAY

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry we were caught

is the most likely explanation.

[Anonymous Coward]

what - comments disabled on the twitter/injunction piece?

are reg commenter's not to be trusted? It's all probably made up anyway, much like the probability that Clarkson and Khan have injunctions of a different matter..

anon because I'm scared of the law police

[JaitcH]

Does it really matter when all those little Androids are out there ...

doing such great emulations of ET and phoning home with massive mother loads of pay dirt - all at no cost?

I've never appreciated people's concern anyway - if you have a transmitter, and it is turned on, it may be received by anyone. If people want to get in a tizzy over what Google, and many others, are doing, turn the bloody transmitters off.

If you want keep the transmitters on, learn how to set them up - not take it out of the box and plug it in! And don't use WEP - make anyone wanting to use your WiFi work for the privilege.