http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69L4KW20101025 Google Inc admitted for the first time its "Street View" cars around the world accidentally collected more personal data than previously disclosed -- including complete emails and passwords -- potentially breathing new life into probes in various countries. The disclosure comes just days after Canada's privacy watchdog said Google had collected complete emails and accused Google of violating the rights of thousands of Canadians. "If in fact laws were broken...then there's some serious question of culpability and Google may need to face significant fines," said Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington DC-based privacy advocacy group. Regulators in France, Germany and Spain, among others, have opened investigations into the matter. A coalition of more than 30 state attorneys general in the United States also have launched a joint probe. It remains unclear how many people may have been affected by the privacy breach. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is leading the multi-state investigation, said in a statement on Friday that Google's disclosure about the types of data it collected "validates and heightens our significant concerns," and noted that the investigation is continuing............ (more) Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Old news for Australia. AFAIK the cars went around sniffing traffic to find wireless networks and recording their BSSIDs. This allowed them to locate your position accurately by checking what wireless networks were around your device and matching them to the database. The only data that was collected was unencrypted open networks, in which case, what does it matter if Google has this data? Anyone in your neighbourhood can connect to your network, which is much more dangerous, and they can sniff your traffic all day rather than the Google street view cars driving past and getting a few packets.
I personally think it's stupid governments and people are crying foul when it's people who don't secure their networks in the first place that's causing all the problems. And it's not like Google's also the only one that can do it..
Yes well I have a complete lack of faith in Australia's current government. Especially Senator Conroy and his plan to filter the internet.
who basically get to sit all day on some plush chair, eating caviar, and ride on the backs of the middle class... yup
