[LINK] Google's patent to sniff wi-fi payload data

Roger Clarke Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Wed Jun 2 11:02:11 AEST 2010


At 7:51 +1000 2/6/10, thoughtmaybe.com wrote:
>http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/29/0818219/Google-Describes-Wi-Fi-Sniffing-In-Pending-Patent

<mumble>

Definitely interesting, but ...

The privacy concerns arising from Google's WiFi escapades relate, in 
descending order of importance, to:
-   the device-identifiers of devices other than routers (i.e. the NICIds,
     which are visible in the headers as MAC-addresses)
-   the location of devices by means of those device-identifiers,
     both at the time the surveillance is performed and subsequently
     [substitute some other word for 'surveillance' if you like;
     it's being used here as a neutral descriptor]
-   the association of future traffic with those device-identifiers
-   the content of messages ('payload') picked up at the time the
     surveillance is conducted
-   the device-identifiers of routers
-   the SSIDs of networks
-   the locations of networks, particularly open networks

After looking at the posting, the original article and the patent, I 
don't actually see anything that further undermines Google's 
credibility.

As I read it, that patent is about location, location, location.
(Well, about the process of locating a router).

Google talked with regulators prior to doing the Street View 
drive-bys.  They also talked with at least one advocacy organisation 
- although the APF may have been the only one.

Despite having ample opportunity to tell us that they were monitoring 
WiFi as part of their Street View drive-bys, they failed to tell any 
of us about it.

That was a grave error in its own right;  and it resulted in them 
making further grave errors (including being in breach of various 
laws in various countries, and undermining their carefully-developed 
public image as being a warm and cuddly organisation).

But we knew all that from previous evidence, and I don't see that 
this patent demonstrates any additional misbehaviour.

However, if I've missed something, I'd very much like to know!

</mumble>

_________________________________________________________________________

The patent is here:
http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220100020776%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20100020776&RS=DN/20100020776

United States Patent Application 20100020776
Kind Code A1
January 28, 2010
Filed:  November 26, 2008

_________________________________________________________________________


Google Trying To Deduce Wireless Location Info, Bypass Carriers
By Erik Sherman | Jan 29, 2010
http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10005017/google-trying-to-deduce-wireless-location-info-bypass-carriers/

Marketers have considered wireless handset user location information 
to be gold. Knowing where people are helps target them more 
effectively, as well as develop services that might attract them. 
However, carriers have jealously guarded the knowledge of where users 
are, whether derived from GPS signals or from triangulating radio 
signals.

But according to a patent application number 20100020776, Google 
(GOOG) has been working on methods of deducing locations based on 
packet analysis. This would give a company a route around carriers 
and the ability to make location information available to its own 
advertising customers.

The application, which looks at all forms of wireless, including 
cellular carrier networks, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, discusses estimating 
the locations of wireless access points (whether a Wi-Fi hot spot or 
a cellular tower), determining the accuracy of the locations, and 
then deducing the user's position based on these, for the purpose of 
location-based services.

>In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a 
>computer-implemented method of estimating the location of a wireless 
>device is provided. The method comprises obtaining a packet of data 
>transmitted from a first wireless device to a second wireless 
>device; determining whether one of the first and second wireless 
>devices is a wireless access point; determining the data rate of the 
>transmitted data packet; if one of the first and second wireless 
>devices is the wireless access point, then evaluating the determined 
>data rate against a predetermined criterion; and assigning an 
>estimated location to the wireless access point based upon the 
>evaluation. <

Google would be able to use packet information and network analytic 
methods to determine much of this. The trick would be to capture 
packets from the wireless devices. That becomes much easier if it's 
providing location-based services, meaning that consumers would be 
providing the packets by using the services. Or Google could 
presumably provide location information as a service to its 
advertising or marketing partners, which could provide the packets 
for analysis. This seems to be part of a bigger pattern in which 
Google clearly wants to operate at a level above the carriers, ending 
their roles as information gatekeepers and turning them into simple 
traffic operators.

_________________________________________________________________________

The Slashdot posting that revived the above story:

Google Describes Wi-Fi Sniffing In Pending Patent
Posted by timothy on Saturday May 29 2010, @08:12AM
from the and-in-the-alternative-yer-honor dept.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/29/0818219/Google-Describes-Wi-Fi-Sniffing-In-Pending-Patent
theodp writes
"After mistakenly saying that it did not collect Wi-Fi payload data, 
Google had to reverse itself, saying, 'it's now clear that we have 
been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. 
non-password-protected) Wi-Fi networks.' OK, mistakes happen. But, as 
Seinfeld might ask, then what's the deal with the pending Google 
patent that describes capturing wireless data packets by operating a 
device - which 'may be placed in a vehicle' - in a 'sniffer' or 
'monitor' mode and analyzing them on a server? Guess belated kudos 
are owed to the savvy Slashdot commenter who speculated back in 
January that the patent-pending technology might be useful inside a 
Google Street View vehicle. Google faces inquiries into its Wi-Fi 
packet sniffing practices by German and US authorities."

_________________________________________________________________________


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University



More information about the Link mailing list