[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
Quoting John Williams <subbass@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
On Fri, 2010-04-30 at 23:40 +0100, Michael Mortimore wrote:On Fri, 30 Apr 2010 22:42:03 +0100, Roland Tarver <roland.tarver@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:> http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18844-innovation-the-wifi-database-that-shamed-google.html> > Sneaky! > > best wishes > roly :-) > I don't see what the problem is.I can't imagine Google hasn't considered linking this data to their advertising activities. When serving up ads they can accurately target you with very specific advertising to your locale and based on the other data they already gather on you/us from browsing/search. I think individually wifi data IS public because you transmit it out, but when it is being collected for a large database it suddenly gets worrying. I have been moderately careful with my personal data online, this database blows that out of the water to a degree as google don't need to know *who* I am, they just bypassed that and sorted out exactly *where* I live. It would be trivial to then establish my ID if they were inclined, or court ordered (Heaven knows what future me might do to upset the police/govt.. probably fart they way the UK laws are going) One of my jobs today, see if my wifi signal extends to the road. Trouble is I won't know if Google had some far more sensitive antenna in their cars :(
I've had reliable 802.11b connections running over links up to 500 meters if not more in length using modified pringles cans.
Using 8dB omni-antennae, I can easily get a "doughnut" range of up to 200 meters if not more - far more than you'd need to scan the width of a street whilst you're driving down it.
My friend Bob informs me that it's entirely possible to scan an entire street from the comfort of your car with nothing more than Kismet, GPSd, a home-brew omni-antenna, a usb gps-dongle and a laptop (he's said that even a P-II with 128M RAM would be enough for this!).
If Bob can find your network, then I'm sure Google can... M. -- Matthew Macdonald-Wallace matthew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.truthisfreedom.org.uk/ -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html