Comment Re:Seriously, who cares? (Score 1) 129
Bingo. It is the collection of your router's unique wireless MAC address and publishing the MAC address along with its geographic coordinates that is the real problem. When people wake up to the issue, Google is going to have a major problem.
You can hide your router's SSID, you can turn on encryption, you can change the default password, but you can't hide your router's wireless MAC address. If you could, it would not be possible for even you to connect to your own wireless router.
I plugged in my router's wireless MAC address to a web page that queried Google and it pointed out exactly where I live. Suppose I was being stalked and had moved as a result? Plug back in my router, a friendly Google Android phone with location services enabled picks up the signal, sends it to Google and my new location is now published on the internet without my knowledge or consent.
Anyone who says this isn't a privacy issue is not thinking very deeply about the subject. If I know your physical address, it does not take much to find out a whole lot more.
The real problem is accepting as legitimate the practice of gathering what *should be* private information and publishing the information on the Internet. Google claims that "it makes it easier for cell phones to know where they are located". Read: It makes it easier for Google to target Android users with more profitable location based advertising.
Google, nor anyone else has the right to use my personal access point without my permission. And Google does not have the right to catalog and publish my router's unique MAC address and its exact location on the Internet.
Lets suppose Google made a list of automobile license tags it spotted and published where the tags were seen. Think they could get away with it? The only difference I see is that the license tag is visible to humans. Your router's wireless MAC Address is just as unique as your car tag however you can't see it. But your cell phone sure can.
Want more? Check out "How I Met Your Girlfriend part 3/3" on YouTube. Then tell me this isn't a big deal.
You can hide your router's SSID, you can turn on encryption, you can change the default password, but you can't hide your router's wireless MAC address. If you could, it would not be possible for even you to connect to your own wireless router.
I plugged in my router's wireless MAC address to a web page that queried Google and it pointed out exactly where I live. Suppose I was being stalked and had moved as a result? Plug back in my router, a friendly Google Android phone with location services enabled picks up the signal, sends it to Google and my new location is now published on the internet without my knowledge or consent.
Anyone who says this isn't a privacy issue is not thinking very deeply about the subject. If I know your physical address, it does not take much to find out a whole lot more.
The real problem is accepting as legitimate the practice of gathering what *should be* private information and publishing the information on the Internet. Google claims that "it makes it easier for cell phones to know where they are located". Read: It makes it easier for Google to target Android users with more profitable location based advertising.
Google, nor anyone else has the right to use my personal access point without my permission. And Google does not have the right to catalog and publish my router's unique MAC address and its exact location on the Internet.
Lets suppose Google made a list of automobile license tags it spotted and published where the tags were seen. Think they could get away with it? The only difference I see is that the license tag is visible to humans. Your router's wireless MAC Address is just as unique as your car tag however you can't see it. But your cell phone sure can.
Want more? Check out "How I Met Your Girlfriend part 3/3" on YouTube. Then tell me this isn't a big deal.
