Google Street View Logs WiFi Networks, Mac Addresses

UPDATE 4/27/2010 4:46PM ET: Google's European Public Policy blog has posted a detailed explanation of the data collected by Google cars.

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Google Street View, which compiles 360-degree "maps" of public roads, has caught some flack recently over alleged privacy violations. Just this month, ten nations teamed up to demand that Google improve its privacy protections.

Now, Google is being slammed by Germany's Federal Data Protection Commissioner Peter Schaar, The Register reports (originally reported in German by The Spiegel Online).

Schaar was "horrified" to learn that as the Google Street View car collects its still photos, it also catalogs private Wi-Fi network data like Mac (Media Access Control) addresses and SSIDs.

While Google has not published this information, it intends to do so when the German Street View service debuts at the end of the year, according to The Register. Minister Schaar maintains that the collection of private data was "unlawful" since it was carried on without permission from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Schaar requested that Google delete the information, but Google assured German officials that Street View's methods are lawful and that such methods have been used by Intel and Skyhook.

"We only use information that is publicly broadcast. It doesn't involve accessing the network to send or receive data," Google representatives told U.K. regulators on April 26. But The Register cites private fears about online predators using Google's connection database to "cross-reference" a user's Mac address with the user's actual identity.

In its commitment to protecting private citizens, Google blurs out faces and license plates captured by the Street View team. Individuals can request to have additional information removed, but only after the information has been made public.

In the past, the Google Car, which snaps the pictures that are used on Google Street View, has inadvertently captured some strange scenarios, such as public urination and nudity (photos here).

Comments

[Tochi Opara]

12:02 PM on 05/01/2010

If you want privacy, don't use credit cards, disconnect your internet service, cable tv and phone service, turn over your driver's license, ss card etc. Destroy anything that has a digital signature or connection to the government. Don't live in a numbered house or street, live in a shack in the middle of nowhere. That way, you'll have "privacy".

[Pierpier]

04:55 AM on 05/15/2010

If someone opens a letter to you he commits a crime. It'sd the same thing here. You need proper authorization to do so, Google doesn't have it. They will get fined heavily. Why then did they feel the need to escuse themselves ?

[rmship]

01:30 AM on 05/01/2010

What a helleva statement but true:When you walk outside of your home, you have no expectation to privacy. Who here is arrogant enough to think they're entitled to privacy in public? The paparazzi wouldn't exist if that were the case.

This is just common sense, if you go out in public, a tourist, a street camera, a public web camera, anything really could take a picture of you. If your home is next to a public street, anyone has a right to take a picture from the road; I mean this is just basic common sense. If you want complete privacy don't go outside, otherwise don't think you can dictate what other people do in public.

[terris]

04:04 PM on 05/02/2010

Well said.

[Alberto Kang]

08:56 PM on 05/02/2010

i agree

[PRONESE]

07:52 PM on 04/27/2010

You can set up WiFi Access Point and not connect it to a network. Rename the SSID to FOAD GOOGLE, enable the broadcast SSID feature,and watch the fun!
*
Posish!
*
R/ PRONESE

[LenoFan]

07:42 PM on 04/27/2010

What happend to "Don't be evil"? When did they change it to "Just be evil"?

[yogandclimber]

05:52 PM on 04/27/2010

"it also catalogs private Wi-Fi network data like Mac (Media Access Control) addresses and SSIDs. "

These things aren't private. http://lizardsystems.com/find-mac-address/ so who needs Google to do this.

You can also change your MAC address if you take the time to find your MAC address on the non-existant Google website that lists MAC addresses. So look for your MAC on this list and if you find it then change it. Is it going to tell you the location of your MAC address? I don't know, that's why I'm asking and even if they do I'm not sure how useful that will be. However it would be important just in case you want to drive across the country to check if the MAC address is accurate. Don't tell me Google is going to try and keep this list of millions of MAC addresses current? Why, if the people change MAC addresses then go there and get the new one and tell Google it's out of date and I'm sure they'll update the site right away.

[CessnaDriver]

04:00 PM on 04/27/2010

I saw that thing drive by one day-strange contraption on a crappy old car roof.

[Jase84]

03:54 PM on 04/27/2010

When you walk outside of your home, you have no expectation to privacy. Who here is arrogant enough to think they're entitled to privacy in public? The paparazzi wouldn't exist if that were the case.

This is just common sense, if you go out in public, a tourist, a street camera, a public web camera, anything really could take a picture of you. If your home is next to a public street, anyone has a right to take a picture from the road; I mean this is just basic common sense. If you want complete privacy don't go outside, otherwise don't think you can dictate what other people do in public.

[Duane Burnett]

07:37 PM on 04/27/2010

Correct , the individual also has to have A modicum of common sense.

[white mende man]

12:08 AM on 04/28/2010

It's called having a sense of decency in case we have forgotten what that word means.

[IrishLover]

02:15 PM on 04/27/2010

but I love being mapped

[theaetetus]

01:48 PM on 04/27/2010

google calls out chinas dastardly deeds because they hate the competition

[emmanuel goldstein]

03:53 PM on 04/27/2010

Google collecting publicly available information is not the same thing as a totalitarian state keeping it's citizen's ignorant by banning access to information.

[theaetetus]

11:52 AM on 04/28/2010

agreed, however google censors too.

[LiberalScoop]

01:05 PM on 04/27/2010

How many people are going to clue in to this location other than those who know where these girls are going to be. They're lying in a public place. More people who are just walking by will see them then those who would find them on google. What we should be worried about is the number of national databases our names are in and how much the government knows of your activities. This was true before GW numb nuts became president.

[Tyler-Durden]

01:02 PM on 04/27/2010

OMG. the comments in here are yet again brimming with IGNORANCE.

STEALING WIFI = THEFT OF SERVICE.

it is a federal offense, and it is a misdemeanor in almost every state as well. READ:
http://www.timewarnercable.com/nynj/support/cabletheft/cabletheftfederalstatutes.htm

it is NOT like borrowing a cup of sugar. internet access is a service, and you playing dumb by saying it's just "in the air so it's ok" will land your arse in court to pay a heavy fine.

people speed. people steal. they know what they're doing. so enough with the surprise when you get busted.

[EHarold]

04:04 PM on 04/27/2010

Smoke a bowl and chill the f*** out there buddy. Meanwhile, I'm going to go steal some more of my neighbors wi fi .

[rclxor]

05:18 PM on 04/27/2010

"We only use information that is publicly broadcast. It doesn't involve accessing the network to send or receive data,"

[rclxor]

05:28 PM on 04/27/2010

But I guess that line means 'We're joining the network of open wireless access points" to you or something. Reading properly is the key.

[kdlaiusa]

12:55 PM on 04/27/2010

There's no privacy anymore. So guard your info and actions however you can.

[sixyfivepercentwater]

12:53 PM on 04/27/2010

Only a naive person could be "horrified" by this. Anything done in public carries with it no expectation of privacy.

And this isn't news, inasmuch as it's nothing new.

[Factonfact]

12:39 PM on 04/27/2010

Google is NOT snooping.

Nothing that Google records cannot be seen by anyone using the streets.

The PUBLIC streets.

This is a wonderful service that permits people worldwide with an opportunity to tour the world from their computers.

Photojournalists, sociologists and street photographers have done the same thing for years and the work of the best of them hangs in major art museums. Check out the work of W. Eugene Smith, Jacob A Riis, Geoff Winningham and Gary Winogrand, among many, many others.

And this is to say nothing of the millions upon millions of tourists with their ever present cameras, roving the streets of our towns and cities, pointing their lenses at everything and anything and snapping away happily.

Or news photographers. Or documentary photographers. Etc., etc., etc., etc.

Google Streets does not "snoop" any more than tens of millions of folks with their Sony and Blackberry camera phones and their Apple iPhone 3Gs which feature video recording, voice control and up to 32GB of storage . . .

And this is to say nothing of those omnipresent security cameras along the streets and at banks, hotels, casinos, hospitals, grocery stores, convenience stores, you name it.

So get off it about Google Streets and "snooping".

All of us have a right to take photographs if we want as we walk the streets -- and so does Google.

[papertrail]

01:57 PM on 04/27/2010

Well said Factonfact.

[Thom B]

12:12 PM on 04/27/2010

Imagine what would happen if McDonald's, like Goldmann Sachs, start betting against their customers? Hilarity would ensue! ROFL!!
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