The sky is falling again (Google and privacy)

[Pliablemoose]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-2...g-can-track-your-phone/?tag=TOCcarouselMain.0

Android phones with location services enabled regularly beam the unique hardware IDs of nearby Wi-Fi devices back to Google, a similar practice followed by Microsoft, Apple, and Skyhook Wireless as part of each company's effort to map the street addresses of access points and routers around the globe. That benefits users by helping their mobile devices determine locations faster than they could with GPS alone

Only Google and Skyhook Wireless, however, make their location databases linking hardware IDs to street addresses publicly available on the Internet, which raises novel privacy concerns when the IDs they're tracking are mobile. If someone knows your hardware ID, he may be able to find a physical address that the companies associate with you--even if you never intended it to become public.

I have been wondering if cell phones were doing this, guess it really doesn't matter much to me, but it's going to make some headlines...
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[wirednuts]

privacy never matters to anyone until their own underwear is on the front page. i for one do not want a way for anyone in the public to know where im at during any moment. fuck that.

 

[sswingle]

Apple uses skyhook, so don't try to make this out like its just Android devices.

 

[gsaldivar]

Meh, nothing new here. People have been trying to make hotspot databases long before Android even existed. It's only mildly newsworthy now because the big companies are doing it.

 

[Bateluer]

. . . so turn off location services until you actually need them?

 

[zerocool84]

Apple uses skyhook, so don't try to make this out like its just Android devices.

No one was trying to make it only Google. It says it right in the article in the first sentence that everyone else is doing it.

 

[JD50]

No one was trying to make it only Google. It says it right in the article in the first sentence that everyone else is doing it.

He was probably referring to the title of the OP singling out google.

 

[GT1999]

I'd turn off Location based services but the app Find My Droid, which I find really useful probably uses it... if you turn it off I bet the app doesn't work.

 

[hanoverphist]

. . . so turn off location services until you actually need them?

this. i have all 3 choices for network ID turned off. when i need my gps i turn it on. since ive lived in the same city for 40ish years, i rarely NEED my gps. i do get annoyed with the android pop ups saying it failed to update my location, but whatever. that could be the weather app, the browser or any number of other apps.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Apple uses skyhook, so don't try to make this out like its just Android devices.

Uhhh, no they don't.

Apple doesn't beam hardware identification either.

 

[Glitchny]

Uhhh, no they don't.

Apple doesn't beam hardware identification either.

So is the first line of that article, quoted and bolded in the op, a lie then?

 

[dainthomas]

Uhhh, no they don't.

Apple doesn't beam hardware identification either.

lol

a similar practice followed by Microsoft, Apple, and Skyhook Wireless as part of each company's effort to map the street addresses of access points and routers around the globe.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Here's how it works: Wi-Fi-enabled devices, including PCs, iPhones, iPads, and Android phones, transmit a unique hardware identifier, called a MAC address, to anyone within a radius of approximately 100 to 200 feet.

like i said, apple doesn't beam hardware identification.

 

[Red Storm]

like i said, apple doesn't beam hardware identification.

The article appears to disagree with you. It specifically states the opposite.

 

[zerocool84]

The article appears to disagree with you. It specifically states the opposite.

Lol

Apple doesn't need to get the ID of your phone, they already have it when you activate the phone with your Apple login since it's associated with the phone and that's how it's tracked. We already know they track you though. Nothing new. Every smartphone company keeps tabs on you where ever you go.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

The article appears to disagree with you. It specifically states the opposite.

The quote was from the article...

 

[gsaldivar]

iPhones, iPads ... transmit a unique hardware identifier

like i said, apple doesn't beam hardware identification.

:biggrin:

 

[Dulanic]

:biggrin:

Shhh don't confuse him!

 

[Pliablemoose]

Christ, do you guys even bother to read anything?

Google and Skyhook are capturing data your phone collects from other devices... Not just your data...

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Sigh. Obviously you're not understanding what I'm saying. When iOS devices beam back data to Apple, it's anonymous, there is nothing that ties your phone to that location. Go look at the Senate hearings when Apple testified to it.

This article is referring to how Google Maps is keeping data (location and hardware identification data).

 

[Pliablemoose]

Sigh. Obviously you're not understanding what I'm saying. When iOS devices beam back data to Apple, it's anonymous, there is nothing that ties your phone to that location. Go look at the Senate hearings when Apple testified to it.

This article is referring to how Google Maps is keeping data (location and hardware identification data).

And using our phones to collect the data.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

And using our phones to collect the data.

But that data isn't even tied to you, let alone your phone.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

You should also be more alarmed that Google is doing this more than Apple allegedly doing it.

 

[gsaldivar]

You should also be more alarmed that Google is doing this more than Apple allegedly doing it.

Why, because Google/Apple know that my neighbor's SSID is "Linksys"?

So what?

If it helps to provide me with better service, I'll gladly opt-in.

 

[Ns1]

You should also be more alarmed that Google is doing this more than Apple allegedly doing it.

i don't care who is doing it.