<story><title>Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world</title><url>http://blogs.computerworld.com/android/22806/google-knows-nearly-every-wi-fi-password-world</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>crb</author><text>Google also knows all the secrets of General David Petraeus, or anyone else that uses Gmail.  And everything you&amp;#x27;ve (secretly) searched for.&lt;p&gt;Google&amp;#x27;s business model is based on aggregating that information and gaining value out of the data, mostly in the form of advertising. As soon as it lets a major secret out, even just once, it&amp;#x27;s game over, and no-one will ever trust a secret to Google again.  This is why they publish videos saying that no-one can ever walk out of a Google data centre with a hard drive.&lt;p&gt;I continue to use the services I use because I find the benefit I gain from them, more useful than the potential risk of exposure.&lt;p&gt;Should these secrets be encrypted?  If they were, it would be possible for Google to steal your key if they wanted to. This is the same kind of perception problem that led to the Chrome team being hauled over the coals in public for not encrypting saved passwords.  They have to be available to be useful, but people would rather perceive they weren&amp;#x27;t available.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>r0h1n</author><text>&amp;gt; As soon as it lets a major secret out, even just once, it&amp;#x27;s game over, and no-one will ever trust a secret to Google again.&lt;p&gt;Just out of curiosity, how would we know even if a secret was let out to, say, the NSA or US Govt? Because (a) Google isn&amp;#x27;t allowed to legally acknowledge it and (b) US LEOs will use &amp;quot;parallel construction&amp;quot; to obscure the fact that they obtained such secret information.&lt;p&gt;Moreover, if you&amp;#x27;re not a US citizen, even lesser chances of ever coming to know what information is being handed over&amp;#x2F;intercepted by the US Govt. If Presidents of countries can be targeted for surveillance, no reason a common person cannot.&lt;p&gt;Please note, I am not saying Google was specifically guilty of passing on info to the NSA in these cases, but just that, even if they were forced to, there&amp;#x27;s no way the affected users would come to know.&lt;p&gt;Link: &lt;a href=&quot;http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/02/20291489-snowden-leak-journalist-nsa-spied-on-emails-of-brazil-and-mexico-presidents&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;worldnews.nbcnews.com&amp;#x2F;_news&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;20291489-snowd...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world</title><url>http://blogs.computerworld.com/android/22806/google-knows-nearly-every-wi-fi-password-world</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>crb</author><text>Google also knows all the secrets of General David Petraeus, or anyone else that uses Gmail.  And everything you&amp;#x27;ve (secretly) searched for.&lt;p&gt;Google&amp;#x27;s business model is based on aggregating that information and gaining value out of the data, mostly in the form of advertising. As soon as it lets a major secret out, even just once, it&amp;#x27;s game over, and no-one will ever trust a secret to Google again.  This is why they publish videos saying that no-one can ever walk out of a Google data centre with a hard drive.&lt;p&gt;I continue to use the services I use because I find the benefit I gain from them, more useful than the potential risk of exposure.&lt;p&gt;Should these secrets be encrypted?  If they were, it would be possible for Google to steal your key if they wanted to. This is the same kind of perception problem that led to the Chrome team being hauled over the coals in public for not encrypting saved passwords.  They have to be available to be useful, but people would rather perceive they weren&amp;#x27;t available.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>amirmc</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;As soon as it lets a major secret out, even just once, it&amp;#x27;s game over, and no-one will ever trust a secret to Google again.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I used to think this but now I&amp;#x27;m not so sure. With the way services like FB and others slowly change settings, Sony gets hacked and other data breaches, news about govt spying etc, I wonder whether the mass public is suffering from Learned Helplessness [1]. After all, what alternatives do most people really have?&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Learned_helplessness&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>