Police says no evidence Google committed a crime with Street View Wi-Fi snooping
Received a media release from the NZ Police a moment ago, that seems to say that if you leave your Wi-Fi connection unencrypted so that others can snoop on your data… "tough, you have yourself to blame".
We'll see if the Privacy Commissioner takes the matter further. Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff has expressed surprise that Google didn't tell the public more clearly that the information would be collected and has asked for further details about.
Police has referred the matter of data collection from Wi-Fi networks by Google Street View back to the office of the Privacy Commissioner.
The Privacy Commissioner formally referred the matter to Police in June following concerns over Google obtaining unencrypted Wi-Fi data while collecting panoramic digital images for its Street View service.
An investigation by Police has determined that there is no evidence to suggest a criminal offence has been committed.
Police has now handed the matter back to the Privacy Commissioner for further consideration.
Detective Senior Sergeant John van den Heuvel of the Police National Cyber Crime Centre says the matter is a timely reminder about Wi-Fi security:
"Anyone using Wi-Fi needs to ensure they have appropriate security measures in place. People should not underestimate the risk that information they broadcast might be accessed by others, either inadvertently or for more sinister purposes."
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Comment by James, on 2-Sep-2010 15:27
Sudden outbreak of common sense.
If I stand in my backyard and shout out my name every few seconds, it's not in any way against the law for somebody walking past to write it down.
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Comment by photoman, on 2-Sep-2010 14:33
When the news of Google collecting this information first came to light, Google said they had collected the information 'by mistake'. Now they are saying they had planned to collect it, but just bother themselves telling anyone. I always wondered how their Street View cars mistakenly picked up and stored Wi-Fi information.