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Germany catches Google red handed at massive spying

KOM.Nausicaa said:
I agree, and that is why this option is now put to law in Germany before Google can publish street view in Germany.

I also want to make clear that I like street view. It's fun and educational. You can see what the street or the neighborhood is like of the hotel you want to book or the house to buy. You can plan vacations. It can help you learn about other cultures and countries. Whats New York like? Whats Tokyo or Berlin like ? Show Beijing to your kids... Google Earth and Street View are fun and you learn stuff. I think this is great.
I do however share Ken's concerns too. This kind of information can - and will - be used by the wrong people. As it has always happened with every tool in the history of humanity.
Click to expand...

I agree completely! Street view is a great concept for businesses and government offices where people have a need or desire to go to transact business.

The error what when Google was allowed to post residences.

I believe Germany is further ahead of where the United States should go. The genie cannot be put back in the bottle, but rational limits can be placed. Some mentioned about real estate sites. But, again, these points miss the essential point. People choose to put their homes on the market and they choose whether to list their homes online.

Google never gave anyone a choice at all. They just invaded my privacy for a profit motive.

And they never even sent me any proceeds!

Ken
 
Toastmaker said:
Ken, when a burglar "cases" a house or building, he's not concerned about the structure beyond a quick determination of an entry point. What they look for are human movement patterns, ie; when the people leave and how long are they gone.

The vast majority of residential buglaries in the USA take place during the day - on weekdays, while people are at work/school. Burglars are, like most criminals, cowards and pragmatists at the same time. They do not want any confrontation with residents at all.

Looking at a picture of your house on Google gives little or no info to a thief.

:running:
Click to expand...

Toast,

I am certainly aware of what a complete casing must require. However, Google Street View allows criminals a very easy and secretive means to cull out prospective homes based upon the photos provided.

Criminals can then solicit out candidates that have optimal sight line blocks that would allow them to break in unobserved, while at the same time, cull out those homes with unobstructed sight lines from the street. They can also decide which homes are located such that multiple avenues of escape are present, and cull out those with too many dead ends, or with police stations too close.

In addition, the criminals can select homes based upon the presumed wealth contained inside the home. A photo can tell a lot about the lifestyle of the occupants.

Before Street View, criminals had no other choice but to get in a car and cruise slowly through a residential area to case out locations. Just the mere way they had to do this sometimes alerted residents, who contacted cops, who tracked them down and detoured a crime before it even took place.

Street View allows criminals to do it on a computer safely removed from law enforcement's due deligence. Once they zero in on a few good candidates, they can focus their more detailed on site surveys with a better plan to avoid detection.

Cheers,

Ken
 
I need to bronze this thread while I still can....
Ken & Nausicaa banding together in agreement :ques: :d :d :d
 
Bjoern said:
C'mon Google, try to break into my wireless...:>

WPA2-PSK with a 50+ letter passphrase and a MAC filter´should keep them busy for a fairly long time.
Click to expand...

I said they recorded data from non protected wireless. This evening Google has admitted having recorded private data (mail, surfing etc) from those networks. Lets not forget that until now, Google only said it had recorded WLAN name and address. Now it looks already different. The situation worsens by the hour, and those Google activities look more and more suspicious.
 
There are actually very few things which make our lives easier, that don't also make crims' lives easier...
Think about it: cellphones, fast cars, boats, even submarines! can be subverted to other purposes.
The internet is driven by porn, which I'm assuming wasn't the original intent. So was the DVD industry.
It goes right back to the stone axe.

I like all the amenities and technology of the 21st century enough to accommodate all these things.
Streetview is one of them.
When they are wrongly used, we have the same set of tools and better to fight them.

I would like a cut of the proceeds of having my privacy invaded though
And certainly would love to have some of the alleged technology that allows a drive-by hook in to my WiFi network
I can't get it to light up my laptop without re-entering a 128-bit encryption string, every time! :d
And who uses a nonprotected net for important stuff anyway?
 
Most people have no idea of the billions and billions of dollars which are at stake in the upcoming internet wars between the giants... where Apple, Google, and Microsoft will begin battling for web supremacy...and why almost every step is considered to get an advantage in this war - like for example massive user data collections.

The Dogs of War: Apple vs. Google vs. Microsoft
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/04/the-dogs-of-war-apple-vs-google-vs-microsoft/

How Apple and Google's Romance Turned To Hate
http://gizmodo.com/5483662/how-apple-and-googles-romance-turned-to-hate
 
KOM.Nausicaa said:
I agree, and that is why this option is now put to law in Germany before Google can publish street view in Germany.

I also want to make clear that I like street view. It's fun and educational. You can see what the street or the neighborhood is like of the hotel you want to book or the house to buy. You can plan vacations. It can help you learn about other cultures and countries. Whats New York like? Whats Tokyo or Berlin like ? Show Beijing to your kids... Google Earth and Street View are fun and you learn stuff. I think this is great.
I do however share Ken's concerns too. This kind of information can - and will - be used by the wrong people. As it has always happened with every tool in the history of humanity.
Click to expand...





Sorry, but I must inform you that this is not correct. Toggle bolts. I've checked and there is no known recorded incident of toggle bolts ever being used by the wrong people.

Just thought you shoud know. . .

:running:
 
Toastmaker said:
I've checked and there is no known recorded incident of toggle bolts ever being used by the wrong people.
Click to expand...

You checked ? Maybe you should visit some SM clubs Toast. Now, I didn't actually say that, ok? :d
 
Toastmaker said:
Sorry, but I must inform you that this is not correct. Toggle bolts. I've checked and there is no known recorded incident of toggle bolts ever being used by the wrong people.

Just thought you shoud know. . .

:running:
Click to expand...

Yes, but if a toggle bolt broke with no one around would it have really broke?

I mean these are heavy concepts we're dealing with here! :mixedsmi:

Ken
 
Ken Stallings said:
I believe Germany is further ahead of where the United States should go.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm. It's the same German Ministery of Consumer Protection that refuses clear and easy-to-read declaration of food ingredients. Just to keep the strong food producer's lobby happy.
In my eyes, all this fuzz about Google Street View currently performed is just diversionary tactics to prevent the public from discovering where the true hazards come from.

No - I'm far from being a conspiracy dork. "Fluoridated water? Bring it in!" :d

I really don't care about people staring at the house I live in. They can't get any useful information. Only thing they could get is two cats sitting in the window, staring back. So what?

People using unprotected WLAN also write their PIN at the back of their ATM card. No pity for them!

Cheers,
Markus.
 
Wild Bill Kelso said:
People using unprotected WLAN also write their PIN at the back of their ATM card. No pity for them!
Click to expand...

Oh, that's clever!

I really should do that. Maybe the thief will have mercy on me on seeing my account balance and actually improve it instead of worsen it. :icon_lol:
 
Google spying second chapter:

German Prosecutors now Investigating Google over Data Capture:

Google is being investigated by prosecutors in Germany on suspicion of violating privacy laws. The move comes after the company admitted to capturing people's private data through its controversial Street View service.

http://tinyurl.com/38hoyro
 
A couple of years ago I upgraded to broadband internet from an old dial-up account. From what I had seen and heard about WiFi modem/routers at that time there was no way I was going to be in that and payed for an extra telephone line to run the internet access.
A friend of my sister was setting up her business WiFi modems at her home and the inadvertently logged into the house next door.....that sort of thing seemed very common.
 
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