
 The Hysteria Over Google's Wi-Fi Scanning - wglb
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000718.html
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sqrt17
Recording a few packets off an open wifi doesn't sound like much of an issue.
But the fact that governments -- be it Hongkong or Germany or the others --
line up to grab a share of the data should tell you that someone, somewhere,
has a real, tangible (and not necessarily non-evil) use for it.

IMO, Google put itself in a bad position having this data, whether they
intended it or not, because other people can get to this data, by subpoena,
thinly veiled threats with law enforcement (in countries where the state
doesn't get checked and balanced that much), or plain economic espionage (for
all the mobsters out there). It's a little bit like creating an atomic bomb in
your backyard: even when you're not planning to do any evil with it, it's
still a bad idea to have one because the others will come and want.

~~~
wmf
Google wants to delete the data and has already deleted much of it. But
they've constructed a catch-22 where they believe that under German law it is
illegal to possess the data, illegal to delete it, and illegal to give it to
the government, so they're doing nothing. It will probably have to get hashed
out in court.

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adolph
The article, like the controversy, is a cup of very vague weak tea with a hint
of general conspiracy. It would be more informative if the author provided any
information about the specific laws allegedly broken by Google and who
Google's adversaries are.

~~~
freetard
I'd be curious to see how accessing an open wifi can be made illegal. I mean,
it's legal to scan for wifi networks, this how we all connect to wifi
networks. Now, what happen when my laptop finds an open wifi network? I if I
click to connect to that network, my laptop wifi is going to ask permission
(through handshake and protocol etc) to the open wifi which is going to accept
and grant me permission. How can asking first and receiving a positive
response to enter an open wifi be illegal? I mean it's not like I actually
broke into it or cracked the password, I actually asked first and got an
inviting response.

~~~
wmf
_I'd be curious to see how accessing an open wifi can be made illegal._

Using the magic words "expectation of privacy". If we assume that the general
public is clueless about computers and thus many people expect that their open
wi-fi is private (even though technically it isn't), then there's a problem.
Also see the debate about thermal camera scanning of homes.

 _...my laptop wifi is going to ask permission to the open wifi..._

But that's not what Google did; they were sniffing traffic without
associating, so the APs had no opportunity to deny access.

