Google "by mistake" collected private data from WiFi networks
On Saturday on Habré slipped , but remained almost unnoticed, the news of the scandal with cars Google Street View in Germany. But this case deserves a much more detailed discussion.
As you know, Street View cars were originally designed for photographing streets to replenish the Google Maps cartographic database. But some time ago it turned out that, in addition to this, cars collect a database of SSIDs and MAC addresses of all WiFi networks that fall within the access zone. Since the cars carefully go around all the roads, Google gets almost 100% map of private WiFi-points. This fact aroused suspicion of the German authorities, and the Information Protection Agency (DPA) in Hamburg conducted an audit of one Street View car . And then it turned out terrible.
It turned out that the car not only registers the SSID and MAC-addresses, but also completely intercepts all traffic that is transmitted in open WiFi-networks. On Saturday, May 15th, Google representatives officially recognized this fact and explained that this is a programmer's mistake, dated 2006.
According to Google representatives, interception of traffic from WiFi networks was part of one of the pilot projects, and this code accidentally hit the Street View machines.
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The company promised to remove the data collected over three years “as quickly as possible”, and also immediately stop collecting information on WiFi networks using Street View machines.
“This incident shows how open to the public are the password-protected WiFi access points,” commented Google Alan Eustace, a leading programmer. He also adds, appealing to all users: “The Google programming team works a lot to gain your trust - and we are acutely aware that we have failed very much here.”
As you know, Street View cars were originally designed for photographing streets to replenish the Google Maps cartographic database. But some time ago it turned out that, in addition to this, cars collect a database of SSIDs and MAC addresses of all WiFi networks that fall within the access zone. Since the cars carefully go around all the roads, Google gets almost 100% map of private WiFi-points. This fact aroused suspicion of the German authorities, and the Information Protection Agency (DPA) in Hamburg conducted an audit of one Street View car . And then it turned out terrible.
It turned out that the car not only registers the SSID and MAC-addresses, but also completely intercepts all traffic that is transmitted in open WiFi-networks. On Saturday, May 15th, Google representatives officially recognized this fact and explained that this is a programmer's mistake, dated 2006.
According to Google representatives, interception of traffic from WiFi networks was part of one of the pilot projects, and this code accidentally hit the Street View machines.
')
The company promised to remove the data collected over three years “as quickly as possible”, and also immediately stop collecting information on WiFi networks using Street View machines.
“This incident shows how open to the public are the password-protected WiFi access points,” commented Google Alan Eustace, a leading programmer. He also adds, appealing to all users: “The Google programming team works a lot to gain your trust - and we are acutely aware that we have failed very much here.”
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/93744/
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