Hubble Starts to Wake Up
Posted by on under privacy problem | 
On Friday, I blogged a privacy problem with Facebook: certain emails auto-sent by Facebook leaked users' IP addresses. Good news on that issue: Facebook policy communications officer Barry Schnitt updated us in the comments to let us know that the issue has been resolved....Posted by on under privacy advocates, view cars, neighborhood streets, mapping products, street view, european time, google, boing boing, private data, nyt, unencrypted, mth, wireless networks, personal data, regulators, late night, 3 years, giant, fi |
Google today admitted that for more than 3 years, it inadvertently collected bits of private data people sent over unencrypted wireless networks. The confession comes a month after European regulators began asking Google what data Google collects as its camera-laden Street View cars cruise city and neighborhood streets, and what the search giant does with that data. Two weeks ago, Google tried to address the questions and criticism in a blog post. It admitted to collecting certain kinds of data around the world that identify Wi-Fi networks in order to help improve its mapping products. But the company explicitly said it did not collect or store so-called "payload data" - the actual information being transmitted by users over unprotected networks. But Google is now saying, in a late-night-Friday European-time confession that is sure to infuriate regulators and privacy advocates, that its previous claims were wrong. Google Admits to Snooping on Personal Data (NYT) WiFi data collection: An update (Official Google Blog)...
