I imagine that most of you have heard by now about the big trouble that
Google has gotten itself into as a result of its Street View vehicles which
provide the map data for Google Earth.

I mentioned a while back that I was a bit unnerved myself when I realized
how much information Google had collected for Google Earth. When I saw my
dad's house thousands of miles away, from different angles, and up close,
and could also see his car, and possibly even him in one of the images, it
was a bit spooky.

But now, it turns out, that since 2006, Google has been surreptitiously
collecting even more private information from people who run wireless
networks in their homes, but who fail to password protect those same
networks. That is one reason why I refuse to use a wireless network in our
home. They just aren't 100% safe. Hard cables aren't either, but they are
safer than wireless.

At any rate, I don't believe for one minute that Google didn't know that
this was going on. It is their vehicles, their equipment, and their
software. As technically savvy as they are, how could they not know that
this private data was being collected? The fact that they would not let the
German authorities see the hard drive is clear proof, in my view, that they
already knew that there was data on that hard drive that they didn't want
the authorities to see, because they knew that it would get them in trouble.

The only reason why Google is saying anything now, is because they've been
exposed, and the German authorities, and other European authorities, are
putting pressure on them. Otherwise, I seriously doubt that Google would
have ever said a word about any of this, and they would just continue to
collect personal data.

Quite frankly, I think that personal privacy has almost become a thing of
the past. National governments now know so much about their citizens, and
they collect so much personal data without even ever telling us about it.
George W. Bush was undoubtedly one of the worst, but I wouldn't put it past
Obama to be doing the same thing.

What surprises me is that Americans aren't yelling louder about this
violation of their privacy, like the Germans are.


Google Data Admission Angers European Officials

By KEVIN J. O'BRIEN - NYT

May 15, 2010


BERLIN -- European privacy regulators and advocates reacted angrily Saturday
to the disclosure by Google, the world's largest search engine, that it had
systematically collected private data since 2006 while compiling its Street
View photo archive.

After being pressed by European officials about the kind of data the company
compiled in creating the archive -- and what it did with that information --
Google acknowledged on Friday that it had collected snippets of private data
around the world. In a blog post on its Web site, the company said
information had been recorded as it was sent over unencrypted residential
wireless networks as Google's Street View cars with mounted recording
equipment passed by.

The data collection, which Google said was inadvertent and the result of a
programming error, took place in all the countries where Street View has
been catalogued, including the United States and parts of Europe. Google
apologized and said it had not used the information, which it plans to
delete in conjunction with regulators.

But in Germany, Google's collection of the data -- which the company said
could include the Web sites viewed by individuals or the content of their
e-mail -- is a violation of privacy law, said Ilse Aigner, the German
minister for food, agriculture and consumer protection. In a statement
Saturday, her ministry demanded a full accounting.

"Based on the information we have before us, it appears that Google has
illegally tapped into private networks in violation of German law," Ms.
Aigner said. "This is alarming and further evidence that privacy law is a
foreign concept to Google."

Johannes Caspar, the data protection supervisor for Hamburg, who is leading
the German government's dealings with Google on the issue, said the
company's revelation of illegal data collection would be taken up by a panel
of European national data protection chiefs that advises the European
Commission.

"This is a data scandal of a much larger magnitude," Mr. Caspar
said. "We
are talking here about the large-scale collection of private data on
individuals."

He declined to speculate what action European officials might take.

Mr. Caspar said he had inspected one of Google's Street View recording
vehicles at the company's invitation this month and had noticed that the
recording device's hard drive had been removed. When he asked to view the
drive, he said he was told he couldn't read the information anyway because
it was encoded. He said he pressed Google to disclose what type of
information was being collected, which prompted the company to examine the
storage unit.

"I am glad that this cat-and-mouse game with Google is finally over," Mr.
Caspar said. "I hope now that the company does what it says it will do."

"I think this is going to damage the company irreparably," said Simon
Davies, the director of Privacy International, a London-based group of
privacy advocates from 40 countries. "Three years ago the company was
wearing a halo. But over the past year it has moved substantially in the
direction of being perceived as Big Brother."

Kay Oberbeck, a Google spokesman in Hamburg, said the company was in contact
with data protection officials in Germany and in the rest of Europe to
address their concerns. He disputed the notion that Google was recklessly
collecting private information, saying the company's services were meant to
let users control what information is made public.

"This was obviously a mistake, and we are profoundly sorry," Mr. Oberbeck
said. "We take individual privacy very seriously at Google. There was a
breakdown in the communication between teams and within teams, and we are
investigating this and want to take up the lessons we learn from this to
improve our processes and to have instruments installed which are really
robust to make this never happen again."

Google was collecting the data on locations of wireless networks to improve
geolocation for mobile devices. Some cellphones can determine their location
by scanning for nearby wireless networks and comparing that information to
databases like the one Google has compiled.

Google plans to hire an outside auditor to investigate what personal data
was collected through Street View. The improper collection of data came to
light, Mr. Oberbeck said, after German data protection officials asked
Google two weeks ago to detail exactly what information it had collected
from household wireless local area networks, or WLANs.

Initially, Google had told German officials that the data it had collected
was limited to just two bits of information: the publicly broadcast ID
number of the device, which is called a MAC address, and the name assigned
to it by the owner, called an SSID.

But in its review, Mr. Oberbeck said the company learned that its data
collection performed by roving Street View vehicles was much more extensive,
including a record of sites viewed by the user and potentially the contents
of messages if users did not secure their WLANS with a password.

Despite its internal efforts to address the situation, Google may face an
uphill battle in Germany overcoming skepticism about its intentions. So far,
thousands of Germans have signed up to have their properties excluded from
Google's Street View archives.

If Google's software makes a mistake, it could be costly for the company.
Till Steffen, the justice senator for the city-state of Hamburg, where
Google's German headquarters is located, said Google's latest disclosure
raised questions about its intent to follow local laws.

Mr. Steffen has introduced a bill in the German Parliament that would fine
Google for displaying personal property in Street View without the consent
of owners. On Saturday, he demanded that Google turn over the illegally
obtained information to regulators.

"Google is in the process of frittering away its last shred of
credibility,"
Mr. Steffen said. "The company must immediately disclose to what degree it
has secretly eavesdropped as we've sent e-mails to friends in Germany and
the rest of Europe or as we've done our banking in the Internet."

Mr. Steffen on May 7 introduced a bill in the upper house of the German
Parliament that would fine Google 50,000 euros, or $62,500, for each time it
failed to remove the personal property of a citizen who requested to be
exempted from Street View. Action on the bill is not likely before summer.

The latest episode will further complicate Google's business in Europe,
where the company has faced a series of legal entanglements over privacy
issues.

In April, data protection regulators from eight European countries and
Israel and New Zealand sent a joint letter to Google's chief executive, Eric
E. Schmidt, criticizing the company's Buzz social networking service, which
unwittingly publicized the connections of some users without their
permission.

In Switzerland, Google has agreed to halt the display of further Street View
images pending the outcome of a court case lodged by Swiss federal data
protection officials.



Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23
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