Google may be in big, big trouble. Legally. Google collects people's passwords, etc

[C0ldf1re]

... to have 100% privacy we need to pay rather than going for something which is free...

Sorry, but how is that relevant to Google collecting personal data from unsecured Wi-fi networks?

[deepsand]

Google is an American company. France and Germany cannot regulate what Google does here in America, and that is all that I need to consider.

Google does not operate under US jurisdiction alone; it is a myriad global subsidiaries, all owned by a holding company. That which affects one subsidiary affects the holding company, thereby potentially affecting other subsidiaries as well.

Additionally, the US is party to various treaties and ancillary agreements regarding the transmission collection, storage and transmission of private information, such that an action in the EU could well require the US to force Google to comply.

[zenfort]

What does GPS position positioning information have to do with data transmitted by wifi networks?
Even detecting the existence of wifi networks does not need/involve the collection of data transmitted.

[deepsand]

Google has been using its Street View cars to map Wi-Fi hot spots.

Such requires both GPS data to mark the locations of such, along with capturing the publicly broadcast SSID information and MAC addresses.

The issue at hand involves the capture of Wi-Fi payload data, which allegedly accidentally occurred.

[Bernd]

Google is an American company. France and Germany cannot regulate what Google does here in America, and that is all that I need to consider. What really can they do. fine google? oh my.. ban google from offering its services in those two SMALL countries. woopty doo.

The trouble google has, is for the acting in France and Germany. And in this countries do not count american laws.
SMALL is your understanding.

[kgun]

The trouble google has, is for the acting in France and Germany. And in this countries do not count american laws.
SMALL is your understanding.

1. Measured by population, the USA is small compared to China and India.
2. Measured by area it is small compared to Russia.
3. Measured by area / capita, Norway is perhaps of the same size, and Denmark and Holland much bigger
4. Here the majority is against the EU data storage directive, too and some people say that they rely more on Google than on ... So Google, please destroy the data and don't hand it over to the EU or other bureaucracies.
5. I am comfortable here. And our big Swedish brother watch us since 90 % of our internet traffic is routed via Sweden. People in Finland don't like it according to a Swedish Intel employee I met at an Oracle seminar.

Back to topic?

[kgun]

1. Measured by area / capita, Norway is perhaps of the same size, and Denmark and Holland much bigger

I am an economist and not a mathematician.

Definition of an economist.

A person that can tell us that what he told us yesterday was wrong.

Not everybody is able to do that.

[bine]

Begging your pardon, but that is not a correct analogy in these circumstances. A better analogy would be for you to buy a car and forget to lock it. That would not entitle somebody else to steal your car.

Exactly, but even more so because routers are sold in electronics stores without any "keys" to lock it. In order to know how to do that, you either have to be aware of highly technical IT standards and practices and/or carefully read, understand and implement the highly technical details in the user manual. Either way, it requires acquiring a degree of knowledge that is FAR greater than simply turning a key in a lock. How many home users who just want to use the internet for e-mail and maybe the occasional video do you think know what 192.168.0.1 is??

Seriously, who in their right mind is claiming that people who aren't aware of highly technical IT security practices should deserve to be brutally violated?? That's just nuts. "If you don't know how to set up a wireless network ..." ??? This is NOT common knowledge!! If it were common knowledge, then network specialists would not get paid $200 / hr to set these up.

[bine]

If someone stole the car do I say oh.. but I didn't know I was supposed to lock it! How do I do that?

Still Ignorant.

Do you want to live in a world where a man is justified in purposely causing harm to someone who failed to adequately defend himself?

[james113]

Boy oh boy! Have I stirred up the hornets nest.. I just want everyone to know that I don't have anything against France or Germany, I frankly just don't care what goes on there, unless it will effect me or my clients. If France, Germany, or any other country/state/province puts Google out of business then I will be concerned. Until then, bickering about it is as useless as this thread was to begin with. Mark my words.. Google will be fine