[Infowarrior] - Google Street View grabbed locations of phones, PCs

[Richard Forno]

July 25, 2011 12:14 AM PDT
Street View cars grabbed locations of phones, PCs

by Declan McCullagh
   
Some locations that Google associated with Wi-Fi devices spotted in a San Francisco coffee shop.

scoop Google's Street View cars collected the locations of millions of laptops, cell phones, and other Wi-Fi devices around the world, a practice that raises novel privacy concerns, CNET has confirmed.

The cars were supposed to collect the locations of Wi-Fi access points. But Google also recorded the street addresses and unique identifiers of computers and other devices using those wireless networks and then made the data publicly available through Google.com until a few weeks ago.

The French data protection authority, known as the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) recently contacted CNET and said its investigation confirmed that Street View cars collected these unique hardware IDs. In March, CNIL's probe resulted in a fine of 100,000 euros, about $143,000.

The confirmation comes as concerns about location privacy appear to be growing. Apple came under fire in April for recording logs of approximate location data on iPhones, and eventually released a fix. That controversy sparked a series of disclosures about other companies' location privacy practices, questions and complaints from congressmen, a pair of U.S. Senate hearings, and the now-inevitable lawsuits seeking class action status.

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Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20082777-281/street-view-cars-grabbed-locations-of-phones-pcs/#ixzz1TAbVE6u7