Google KNEW Street View cars were slurping Wi-Fi

by Carol~ Moderator - 4/30/12 9:05 AM

In Reply to: NEWS - April 30, 2012 by Carol~ Moderator

Google knew its Street View cars were slurping personal data from private Wi-Fi routers for three years before the story broke in April 2010.

When the revelations were made, Google said its map service's cars were merely collecting SSIDs and MAC addresses. The following month, it said network data had been captured, but this was the work of one engineer.

Six months later Google conceded that payload data, including emails and passwords, was recorded by the roving photo-motors - but still blamed a rogue engineer.

An investigation by the Federal Communications Commission leaves no ambiguity: an engineer discussed the collection of the personal data with a senior manager, and that between May 2007 and May 2010, wireless traffic was captured by Street View cars.

"Are you saying that these are URLs that you sniffed out of Wi-Fi packets that we recorded while driving?" asks the manager, a question the engineer affirms. Both identities are concealed: the developer is referred to as "Engineer Doe".

The FCC released the full report [PDF, 4.5MB] on Saturday.

Continued : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/30/google_slurp_ok/

Also: Report Says Engineer Designed Google Street View with Payload Data Gathering in Mind