Web attack knows where you live and Google Paranoia.

Originally Posted by vanman

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10850875

scary stuff !

If you are that scared then get off the internet...

[vanman]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

If you are that scared then get off the internet...

may all your hard drives have bad clusters

[v0id]

Hey if it helps those adverts pinpoint where exactly those sexy young girls in my area who want to have sex with me are, I'm all for it

[speedfreak]

Originally Posted by v0id

Hey if it helps those adverts pinpoint where exactly those sexy young girls in my area who want to have sex with me are, I'm all for it

until you turn up to find...Bob, 68, retired accountant looking for fun

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by speedfreak

until you turn up to find...Bob, 68, retired accountant looking for fun

Don't know how it works where you are, but they always come to me.

and I've never had a Bob

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

By default, Firefox asks if you wish to share your location with a website. The article mentions using Firefox. Unless he has found a way to bypass the query (which is possible), then the user would need to consent to send their location.

Still, you can always disable it: http://www.mozilla.com/en-GB/firefox/geolocation/

OK, so I have read a little more on this. The above was based on my reading of the BBC Article, which, it seems, is wrong in the way it describes some of the more technical aspects of the attack.

According to El Register, the attack uses some javacript to log in to the router's web based admin site from the victim's machine. That machine retrieves the MAC of the router from the admin site and sends it elsewhere. I suspect the victim's machine sends the MAC to Google's Location Services, retrieves the location and sends that elsewhere.

I am not sure if I see this as a threat. I complained about Google's actions because Google maintain a *lot* of data tied to a Google ID, including the IP(s) used to access it. With their Street View data theft, they have the rough (to within a few metres) position of those IPs, so they may well have a fairly good idea of who, in what house, has been accessing what. Even if you don't access Google sites regularly, if you have signed into a Google site on a PC, then any sites you visit that use Google AdWords will be logged along with your Google ID.

But, your average hacker probably would not have access to that data. OK, so if you proudly boast on a social networking site that you are off out, and they have your ID on that site, then you could have a problem.

[Pauls9]

I thought Google admitted they were wrong in collecting that data. If that's the case, why is it still available? Why haven't they destroyed it?

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Pauls9

I thought Google admitted they were wrong in collecting that data. If that's the case, why is it still available? Why haven't they destroyed it?

They never admitted to being wrong for collecting MACS. It's the other data they collected they admitted is wrong.

Originally Posted by vanman

may all your hard drives have bad clusters

I hit a nerve I gather.

Originally Posted by Gary L

Don't know how it works where you are, but they always come to me.

and I've never had a Bob

Only after your credit card details were validated.....

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by foreverwar

Only after your credit card details were validated.....

I only pay cash.
as nice as they are, I wouldn't trust them with my card details

[Stuart]

Trolling posts removed.

Calm down. Now.

OK - serious question - how did they manage to get the MAC of the router by driving by whist taking the streetview photos?

If your Wi-Fi is broadcasting, can they get the MAC from just driving by? My Wi-Fi is secured but DHCP is on. The only way I could see them getting the MAC would be by gaining access to the router - which is not possible 'cus they won't have the network key.

I'm sure DHCP broadcasts the MAC but they would have to logon with the network key first - yes?

Google have not come down our road so I'm safe!

[xpod]

Originally Posted by LSainsbury

OK - serious question - how did they manage to get the MAC of the router by driving by whist taking the streetview photos?

If your Wi-Fi is broadcasting, can they get the MAC from just driving by? My Wi-Fi is secured but DHCP is on. The only way I could see them getting the MAC would be by gaining access to the router - which is not possible 'cus they won't have the network key.

I'm sure DHCP broadcasts the MAC but they would have to logon with the network key first - yes?

Google have not come down our road so I'm safe!

They dont need access to your router to get your routers mac address. They dont need access to anything at all to gather wireless router/access point mac addresses in fact. They can just pluck them right out the air so to speak, hidden or not.
I believe they actually used freely available software in conjunction with some Google specific stuff.

[vanman]

Google under probe in S.Korea over data collection

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6791BR20100810

The probe in one of Asia's most wired countries came as a fresh setback to Google, which already faces investigation over "Street View" by 37 U.S. states as well as an informal investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and a variety of probes overseas and class action lawsuits.

Security experts have said the data picked up by Google could include people's email messages and passwords, although Google has said that the United Kingdom's data protection authorities recently concluded that no "meaningful personal information" was collected by the cars.

also
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE67A2VJ20100811

TANTAMOUNT TO SPYING?

"The Stasi would be green with envy if they could have collected this kind of data," wrote the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. "What in the past was called 'state snooping' is now called 'Google View'."