<story><title>Street View camera rigs do much more than just take photos</title><url>https://www.trekview.org/blog/2019/google-street-view-cameras-more-than-meets-the-eye/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jetrink</author><text>I remember the outrage that this revelation generated and I am still stumped by it. First, the probability that a Google car happens to capture sensitive information as it drives past your residence once per year is basically zero. Even if it did, it would still require detective work to correlate it to you specifically. Second, if you are worried about people recording data broadcast by your WiFi router, it&amp;#x27;s up to you to secure your network. I would be much more concerned about a neighbor snooping on my traffic. What did people imagine that Google was doing with these random snippets of data?</text></item><item><author>ForHackernews</author><text>Not just metadata: Wasn&amp;#x27;t the controversy that they were sniffing data packets, too?</text></item><item><author>lalos</author><text>They have been previously used to collect SSID names and other WiFi network metadata. See &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wired.com&amp;#x2F;2012&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;google-wifi-fcc-investigation&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wired.com&amp;#x2F;2012&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;google-wifi-fcc-investigation&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ashtonkem</author><text>I’m kind of surprised that you’re surprised by it.&lt;p&gt;Outrage over privacy violations has very little to do with the actual harm that the privacy violation causes, and much more to do with whether or not it seems to violate a prior expectation of anonymity or privacy. This concept is even enshrined in US jurisprudence; the “expectation of privacy” is a big factor in how privacy works in America.&lt;p&gt;Back to Google. The problem isn’t that they captured packets or SSIDs; the problem is that they captured it &lt;i&gt;sitting outside your house&lt;/i&gt;. With that change it feels like Google has gone from taking photos of the city that you might be in, to sitting in the bushes taking pictures of your house.</text></comment>
<story><title>Street View camera rigs do much more than just take photos</title><url>https://www.trekview.org/blog/2019/google-street-view-cameras-more-than-meets-the-eye/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jetrink</author><text>I remember the outrage that this revelation generated and I am still stumped by it. First, the probability that a Google car happens to capture sensitive information as it drives past your residence once per year is basically zero. Even if it did, it would still require detective work to correlate it to you specifically. Second, if you are worried about people recording data broadcast by your WiFi router, it&amp;#x27;s up to you to secure your network. I would be much more concerned about a neighbor snooping on my traffic. What did people imagine that Google was doing with these random snippets of data?</text></item><item><author>ForHackernews</author><text>Not just metadata: Wasn&amp;#x27;t the controversy that they were sniffing data packets, too?</text></item><item><author>lalos</author><text>They have been previously used to collect SSID names and other WiFi network metadata. See &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wired.com&amp;#x2F;2012&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;google-wifi-fcc-investigation&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wired.com&amp;#x2F;2012&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;google-wifi-fcc-investigation&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>henriquez</author><text>&amp;gt; if you are worried about people recording data broadcast by your WiFi router, it&amp;#x27;s up to you to secure your network&lt;p&gt;So that makes it okay for Google to Hoover up? This attitude is why a lot of people are angry at big tech right now. Elitism and arrogance bordering on hubris, but zero self awareness.</text></comment>