I don't get it. Why would Google ever know anything about your Wifi? If
you choose to make your ssid publicly broadcast, it's publicly broadcast.
At least they admit to it unlike the tens of other people who discovered
it. Is the complaint that they've just reduced the cost to centralized the
info and made it searchable? Likewise, if you don't properly password
protect that publicly broadcast ssid, you will have people using it. If
you care anything about security, not to mention privacy, you shouldn't be
broadcasting that at all.
I have a better idea, we should have a campaign that everyone change their
ssid to "wireless," "netgear," "linksys," or "default."
Greg
On 11/15/2011 1:50 AM, Bill Humphries wrote:
I'm going to suggest a different suffix for WiFi networks wanting to 'opt out' of Google's wifi mapping:
"_gfy_google"
Google's policy is exactly the Silicon Valley arrogance that Prokofy Neva's been talking about for years.
Begin forwarded message:
From: "PFIR \(People For Internet Responsibility\) Announcement List"<pfir@pfir.org>
Date: November 15, 2011 1:10:52 AM PST
To: pfir-list@pfir.org
Subject: [ PFIR ] Google announces opt-out for wi-fi location database, but beware of possible side effects
Reply-To: "PFIR \(People For Internet Responsibility\) Announcement List"<pfir@pfir.org>
Google announces opt-out for wi-fi location database, but beware of
possible side effects
http://j.mp/uWyC6Y (This message on Google+)
It's late, and I have to knock off for the night, but I wanted to
quickly note a posting Google made on their official blog late Monday
evening, relating to a new procedure for opting-out of their wi-fi
location database:
http://j.mp/rROZ3F (Official Google Blog)
In brief, they're asking wi-fi owners who want to opt-out to change their
SSIDs (essentially, the broadcast "name" of wi-fi access points) to
include a suffix of "_nomap".
I understand why Google has chosen this route -- if an opt-in method were
used only a tiny fraction of persons would likely ever adopt it, and wi-fi
mapping does provide notable precision benefits to map users.
Oh, but of course Lauren, the end always justifies the means for you, as long as Google's doing it.
Having said that, it isn't clear to me how practical it really is to
expect significant numbers of people to be willing to change their SSID
on this basis.
They don't. They've put one post on a blog and will now claim they've absolved themselves of any responsiblity.
One problem, probably minor but worth noting, is that this actually
could be seen as drawing attention to yourself. Anyone scanning the
area and seeing certain SSIDs with the "_nomap" suffix might wonder
*why* those particular persons were so interested in not being mapped.
Like I said, probably not a big deal.
Yes, comrade, the innocent have nothing to hide and should welcome the Google bots.
But a much more crucial issue is this. If you do change your SSID,
you're likely going to have to reconfigure every client device you
have that already knows that SSID, because your altered SSID is going
to look like an entirely different access point. This will probably
mean re-inputting your (hopefully WPA2, but perhaps WPA or even [ugh]
WEP) passwords, and doing this for everything that previously knew
that original SSID without the _nomap suffix.
More on this later.
Good night.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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Gregory Alan Bolcer