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Comment by eli | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, but the problem was a bigger joke.

There are many serious threats to privacy in our increasingly networked world. Cataloging the location of public WiFi hotspots is not one of them.

(Also, I can't think of any other practical way for them to work an opt-out system? Mailing in your WAN MAC address?)

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There are many serious threats to privacy in our increasingly networked world. Cataloging the location of public WiFi hotspots is not one of them.

That wasn't the problem. Google sniffed and stored data packets, not just the location of the APs. And of course, a decent proportion of them were completely unencrypted.

See their own blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/wifi-data-collection-...

Of course, whether should people have to encrypt their Wifi networks is debatable, but the EU authorities weren't pleased, so now Google is trying to play "extra nice" to calm them down.

It was an accident. Google doesn't want your data packets.

But if you're concerned about bad guys stealing your wireless data, then it doesn't matter what Google does or opts you out of -- you need to use encryption.

I'm not concerned: the EU privacy watchdogs are.

Personally, I used wired, since my router is so shitty it can't even hold 10mbps over Wifi (not even unencrypted).

That wasn't the problem.

Yes, it is. You're talking about a completely different problem. Anyway even if my network is encrypted, it won't keep Google from logging my SSID and location.

The current opt-out mechanism started because of that "scandal", not because they were logging SSIDs.

This isn't "calming them down". This is throwing gasoline onto the fire.

Google should understand that in countries where privacy is considered an fundamental right, the default answer when it comes to gathering this kind of information is "no", no matter how minor the issue may be.

Telling those authorities "we're gonna do it anyway" is a major provocation.

I disagree: I don't think the authorities have any real problem with SSID location collection. After all, Google requested permission before capturing (they have to, at least in some countries like Portugal) and that was granted.

Our commission did have a problem with Street View photos, but not with the SSID recording.

Cataloging the location of public WiFi hotspots is not one of them

Is it only "public" hotspots that they are cataloging? Are any access point that broadcasts it's SSID?

Why would the opt-in version of the exact same solution not work? You add '_domap' to your SSID to opt-in. If you don't add that, Google agrees to remove your SSID from their records (this does require that they periodically re-scan APs, of course). Am I honestly missing something?

Very few people would actually do that, destroying the usefulness of the data they are collecting.

That's Google issue to sort out-- to incentivize the service. The opt-in solution is still technically feasible, in the sense that it is as easy to implement as the opt-out solution.

A web form to submit a MAC address would make more sense, but if this were a serious problem the solution would be to go to the manufacturers. A standard for broadcasting an "opt-in" bit configurable in the router's admin interface might be reasonable.

(But standards take time to develop and implement. Not to mention that the existence and location of certain MAC addresses is far from the biggest fish to fry, right-to-privacy-wise.)

Perhaps, but I think determining the wireless MAC address of your router would be a much more difficult technical challenge compared to changing the SSID.

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