Google is a bunch of criminals

Now, if the act of recording fills the signature of a telecommunications crime in a country where the recording has been taking place and the people responsible have been unaware about the properties of the software they where using, even though they should have been fully aware of such facts, the amount of responsibility will hover somewhere around gross negligence and negligence. If the Google is not expected to know or understand the law in the countries it collected the information and where the act is specifically defined as a criminal act, the responsibility may be nullified or reduced significantly.
Since they have driven close to some military areas and stored at least network frame information from the networks, there could be some problems ahead either for Google or for the military personnel in question.
Sometimes it would be nice to able to say "the whole thing was all just a mistake" in a warm and fuzzy way and avoid the fault, though.

I don't know where this attitude comes from, but it doesn't make sense, we don't live in an anarchy. Just because you can do something easily, it doesn't automatically become legal. Is it legal to hack accounts with weak passwords? Is it legal to steal a car whose owner left the key in the ignition? What Google did was a gross invasion of privacy that shows their attitude towards their users and people in general. You're all just little providers of data and Google wants it so they can exploit your habits better.

"PI said that what Google did was equivalent to placing a hard wiretap and a digital recorder onto a phone wire without consent or authorisation."

hahahaha

It's great to see big institutions power on with legal action over something they don't have the slightest clue about.

So Google deliberately recorded wireless data traffic from unsecured networks, why?

If Google only wanted an approximate "gps type" location service using wifi network names, then why record the data that was transmitted? All Google needed was the network name.

"The gslite program wrote the body payloads of wireless data packets from unencrypted networks to a hard-drive, according to PI."

This statement informs that some data was written, but it doesn't say how much or it's detail. Was it only the SSID or was it more than that?

I don't see a problem with SSID's being recorded, but I do see a problem with data recording.

Google could have put a card through people's letterboxes informing them of this and giving them the option of opting out. They didn't.

Freedom of information requests, you reporters should all submit freedom of information requests and see what comes back from google.

As Wed Article States BP, About to Declare Bankruptcy, Is involved in Google. Google Is Involved in Israel & We, thePEOPLE are taking Events as Punch to Nose.

In Past Commentos' Reflected on 25% US Bonds issued in May 1980-1986. 30 year payment has begun $500 for every $1 Invested Is Payoff. Ahso, Stated Duke of Edinburghs' 1954 Agreement with world, gave US FREE Mid Eastern oil for 50 years, Saudi arabia plans 10 YEAR disattachment & Move Sales to Peoples republic China. heres bit more confirmation:

red banner hangs at the entrance of the office of the company — the Iraqi affiliate of China's state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. — its Chinese characters promising anyone who can decipher them: "We will cooperate and contribute together for al-Waha."

The scene, an increasingly common one in the new postwar Iraq, is more than a reflection of how the country home to the world's third largest proven reserves of crude is pushing to boost its output. It's also a testament to the lengths to which China will go to secure the oil it sorely needs to fuel its galloping economy as its own crude supplies fall far short

half of China's oil comes from the region. It has ousted the United States as OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia's top oil customer. Saudi Arabia also has set up a joint venture refinery in China.

Already Half of Chinas OIL, More than half of Mid East Supply is Being sold to China, West Get Hundreds of Trillions of Debt payable before 2017 in steady rate, while oil just stops. COMBO Play. BP Will ?rise from ash, Yet will US Dollar really ever be same. World in starting gate & Race Seems to be heavly in favor of forgeiners. HRM Charles Stated Today, Become Muslim. Good Luck, Its' that BAD.

Maybe Google won't tell theREADER, yet Ultimat did, Right Here In RED Pages of theINQ. BTW Saudis' Explain Events forthcoming as Fact PRC Bought Over 50% of Saudi Reserve, AS More is Diverted , Mideast is Significantly Raising Production. ?Bought, With FREE US Bond Monies, in effect. Well, Nearly FREE.

Thomas Stewart von drashek MD

@H.Ruiz: "Of course it doesn't help that over the years the consumer is become more and more technically illiterate (partly because teaching isn't keeping pace with the rate of technological advancement)."

I wouldn't say the consumer is becomeing more technically illiterate. It is more like this: more technically illiterate people have access to technology that a few years ago was only available for tech people or geeks.

"Google ARE a bunch of criminals."... allegedly.

Anyway, just because a crime is easy to commit doesn't mean the victim is to blame. Stealing candy from a baby comes to mind - you could easily do it, but what kind of scum-bag would actually carry out such a crime? Of course it doesn't help that over the years the consumer is become more and more technically illiterate (partly because teaching isn't keeping pace with the rate of technological advancement).

These days people expect their gadgets to "just work", and data security probably never even crosses their minds. In this case consumers will probably have to be saved from themselves by a new generation of devices that refuses to work unless the user is asked to set up some kind of rudimentary security (all dumbed-down into a pretty and colourful wizard interface of course, to appeal to their feeble minds).

counting all that money so for some fun, snoop.
Maybe put an ugly background image on their search page that users can`t change unless they have an account. Google laughing their ass off.

The whole issue here seems to centre upon "expectation of privacy". If you dont want somebody listening in on your conversation, you dont shout it in the street, you talk somewhere private. Similarly, if you dont want somebody looking at your packet data, maybe you shouldnt be broadcasting them.

And to those people who think that their data - WiFi, telephone or even email - should be or even *is* private... well, Im afraid Ive got some very bad news for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_%28signals_intelligence%29

"In 2001 the Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System recommended to the European Parliament that citizens of member states routinely use cryptography in their communications to protect their privacy."

Sleep well. :)

What Google did was wrong, but it shouldn't be illegal. If your networks data is unencrypted, you are taking the risk that someone may look at it. That Google saved a packet or two as they drove by doesn't seem to be a huge deal.
Perhaps it's technically illegal, and they shouldn't have done it (what was their purpose?), but the whole thing seems to be a tempest in a teapot.

In the 90's when wireless technology was really starting to come out but digital encryption had not, you could walk down the street with a cordless phone and listen in on just about anyone else's conversations - even old analog cell phones. That was patently illegal. This is no different. The absence of encryption does not mean you can listen in.

On the one hand, people who broadcast their network on 20-th century "wireless" instead of modern secure WIRES deserve to be snooped on. -- Other hand, it *is* snooping, and if not stopped now, even on somewhat flimsy reason, go_ogle is not going to do less snooping in future without being kicked.

Actually it's more like you leave your front door open and somebody overhears you talking inside.

With your analogy you lose your TV, but in Google's case the owners didn't lose anything.

All in all I also disagree with collecting wifi data, just wanted to point out the error in your argument :P

It's not because a wifi connection is unsecured that one is allowed to connect to it. If I leave my front door open, that doesn't allow you to steal my TV.

Why are they in trouble? The wireless networks are open to everyone. Its peoples fault for not securing them.