[LINK] google misdeeds and Australia's Privacy Commissioner

[Kim Holburn]

On 2010/Jun/22, at 4:29 PM, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> At the physical layer, you're absolutely right. But a WiFi network is
> not only Layer One - it's also the MAC layer, Layer Two. At the MAC
> layer, the "network" is created by devices obeying the addressing  
> rules
> (among other things). To eavesdrop, you don't just open a radio  
> channel
> - you also choose to implement a specific addressing behaviour ("turn
> off the MAC address check", as Errata puts it).


I think that's the crux of it Richard.  I expect, and I don't know  
exactly what they did, that google would have been using a device on  
your OSI layer one - a radio receiver which only received, and did not  
mess much with the protocol.  Apparently they then saved everything  
they received which was their mistake here.



Suppose for a moment that they had meant to strip the packet content  
from the headers (not always necessarily a simple thing) and stored  
only location, MAC Address and SSID.

I assume here too that given the speed of the google cars: about 1.5  
times the speed of NIFAWS*, maybe about 15 - 20kmh so they probably  
missed over half the APs they passed, especially in dense city  
environments, but how could you really tell?

My question is this:
  If they had stored this data only without any packet contents would  
it have been illegal?
  In which countries?

I have other questions too like:

Which other companies have done this and what did they store?

Did google run wifi collectors in the google bicycles?
http://www.metafilter.com/87168/Streets-of-Pompeii
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/08/Google_Street_Bike.jpg

* Norwegians In Flippers And Wet Suits.

-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
T: +61 2 61402408  M: +61 404072753
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