Google sorry for stealing data from your wi-fi network
By Dean • May 19th, 2010 • Category: Industry News, Lead Story
- Photo: Stock.Xchng
It seems that Google was responsible for indirectly stealing people’s Internet search history over unprotected wireless networks. They have since apologised and also admitted that they have egg on their face and that they failed badly one of their blogs.
Blame StreetView
Google became an accidental spy through their StreetView vans which they use to update to their Google Maps and also find public wi-fi networks. All this was uncovered when a German company requested the search engine giant to check whether they weren’t invading people’s privacy through the wi-fi data which the StreetView vans were collecting. And the findings were astounding and embarrassing for Google to say the least.
An apology
Alan Eustace, senior VP of engineering and research at Google, wrote a heartfelt regretful letter accepting that they had in fact indirectly, while unknowingly, saved payload data from unprotected wi-fi networks. Eustace also added that only small unusable bits of data or ‘fragments’ were found and they never used the data in any harmful manner or in any of the Internet giant’s innovative products.
- Photo: Google
It seems that during Google’s three-year ‘theft spree’ from 2007 they collected all types of data from unprotected wi-fi networks like emails, search histories, online video histories and the like. The StreetView vans were however unable to collect encrypted information like personal files or financial data.
Google under the privacy spotlight
This latest discovery has put Google’s wi-fi data collection under even more scrutiny. The search giant has been under fire from numerous groups claiming that their wi-fi data collection practices invade peoples’ privacy. However, Google has been quick to defend themselves, arguing the data which the vans collect is used to improve to ‘location-based service’.
This latest revelation is no cause for great concern, but it’s good to see someone is keeping an eye out and challenging the potential ‘ruler’ of the Internet.
Tags for this article: Google Maps, Public wi-fi, StreetView, wi-fi, wi-fi network
