Research and Destroy

As almost everybody knows by now, Google has recorded data from unprotected WIFI networks everywhere (Frankfurter Rundschau, Reuters). They wanted to record some stuff to get additional accuracy when determining the location of mobile devices in cities. This is pretty useful in large cities where only a few GPS satellites are visible to the device. They claim to have recorded some data by accident, due to a software error. This data includes emails, passwords and lots of other personal data. This is a bad thing, I suppose.

The press writes a lot about this topic, and especially here in germany this release quite a storm of outrage about the evil internet company which wants to know everything about us. Even the german minister of consumer protection, Ilse Aigner (german), got involved. She already has a colorful history with Mark Zuckerberg about privacy issues concerning facebook.com where she threatened the world she will delete here profile there if nothing happens.

My opinion to all this stuff is: If you leave your network visible, or don’t use encryption, it’s your own fault! EVERYBODY could walk down the street with a laptop and record traffic of unencrypted networks. So why harass Google about it if people are simply too lazy to even care about their information? Sure, a scan for SSIDs in the vicinity should have been enough, but so what. Same goes for the insurgence about photographs of the houses for Street View itself. If you don’t want your house to be seen from the street, build a wall around it, or grow a hedge. I might come by with my 12 megapixel camera and take a photo. Hell, I might even put that photo on the internet!!

As almost everybody knows by now, Google has recorded data from unprotected WIFI networks everywhere (Frankfurter Rundschau, Reuters). They wanted to record some stuff to get additional accuracy when determining the location of mobile devices in cities. This is pretty useful in large cities where only a few GPS satellites are visible to the device. They claim to have recorded some data by accident, due to a software error. This data includes emails, passwords and lots of other personal data. This is a bad thing, I suppose. The press writes a lot about this topic, and especially here in germany this release quite a storm of outrage about the evil internet company which wants to know everything about us. Even the german minister of consumer protection, Ilse Aigner (german), got involved. She already has a colorful history with Mark Zuckerberg about privacy issues concerning facebook.com where she threatened the world she will delete here profile there if nothing happens. My opinion to all this stuff is: If yo