Street

Google Launches Indoor ‘Street View’ Shots | PCMag.com

October 28, 2011 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Google is taking its Street View mapping service indoors. No, it won’t capture you vegging out on your couch, but the feature will be exploring the interiors of certain businesses.

A pilot program started in April 2010 and back in May, Google announced plans for 360-degree Business Photos, a program that would send Google photographers to various businesses to snap professional photos for their Places Page. A spokeswoman said today that “we’re seeing renewed interest in the past few days because as promised, as more of the imagery becomes available, we’re getting more of it online.”

Atlantic Wire pointed to a comic book store in Tustin, California that has interior Street View activated. Arrows appear on the floor, allowing you to walk right in and peruse the layout. If you’re at the street level, you can just “walk” into a store following the same arrows.

“This experience, using Street View technology, includes 360-degree imagery of the business interior and storefront,” Google said back in May. “With this immersive imagery, potential customers can easily imagine themselves at the business and decide if they want to visit in person.”

Photographs are taken by “trusted” photographers, Google said, though businesses can also upload their own images via Google Places. The company is currently setting up shoots in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, and the UK. In the U.S., that includes Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Austin, D.C., Boston, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. Google said it is starting with businesses “that we know are searched for most regularly,” like restaurants, hotels, retail shops, gyms, salons, and repair shops.

If you want your business photographed, you can apply online. Google will own the photos it takes, but businesses can request to have shots they don’t like removed.

via Google Launches Indoor ‘Street View’ Shots | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: business interior, com, comic book store, imagery, immersive imagery, interior street, Shots, store, Street, street view

Street View cars grabbed locations of phones, PCs | Privacy Inc. – CNET News

July 25, 2011 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Google’s Street View cars collected the locations of millions of laptops, cell phones, and other Wi-Fi devices around the world, a practice that raises novel privacy concerns, CNET has confirmed.

The cars were supposed to collect the locations of Wi-Fi access points. But Google also recorded the street addresses and unique identifiers of computers and other devices using those wireless networks and then made the data publicly available through Google.com until a few weeks ago.

The French data protection authority, known as the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) recently contacted CNET and said its investigation confirmed that Street View cars collected these unique hardware IDs. In March, CNIL’s probe resulted in a fine of 100,000 Euros, about $143,000.

The confirmation comes as concerns about location privacy appear to be growing. Apple came under fire in April for recording logs of approximate location data on iPhones, and eventually released a fix. That controversy sparked a series of disclosures about other companies’ location privacy practices, questions and complaints from congressmen, a pair of U.S. Senate hearings, and the now-inevitable lawsuits seeking class action status.

A previous CNET article, published June 15 and triggered by the research of security consultant Ashkan Soltani, was the first to report that Google made these unique hardware IDs–called MAC addresses–publicly available through a Web interface. Google curbed the practice about a week later.

via Street View cars grabbed locations of phones, PCs | Privacy Inc. – CNET News.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: cell, cnet article, cnet news, CNIL, hardware, iphones, location, senate hearings, Street, view cars

Judge to Google: sniffing even open WiFi networks may be wiretapping

June 30, 2011 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

When a homeowner runs an open, unencrypted wireless network and Google sniffs the packets from that network, has wiretapping taken place? Or did the openness of the network remove the user’s reasonable expectation of privacy?

Google’s Street View project has enmeshed the company in litigation around the world, most notably over the company’s data collection from WiFi networks its camera cars passed while doing their work. (Google has claimed that this was a mistake.) In the US, a host of class-action lawsuits over the practice have been consolidated into a single case, and the California federal judge overseeing it has just refused Google’s motion to completely dismiss the case. Sniffing even open WiFi packets might indeed be wiretapping, he ruled.

The case remains at a preliminary stage, but the ruling grapples with an interesting question: the extent to which one can access an open WiFi network without falling afoul of the Wiretap Act. Judge James Ware drew a distinction in yesterday’s ruling between merely accessing an open WiFi network and actually sniffing the individual packets on that network.

In the first case, one is only jumping onto a network to send and receive’s one own communications; in the second case, one is looking into someone else’s communications, and doing so in a way that requires nontrivial technical ability or software.

The key question turns on whether open WiFi packets are “readily accessible to the general public,” since US law does provide an exception for monitoring such signals. Because Google’s Street View vehicles allegedly collected WiFi network names (SSIDs), unique hardware addresses (MAC addresses), usernames, passwords, and even “whole e-mails,” Judge Ware concluded that the plaintiffs had stated a proper Wiretap Act claim.

via Judge to Google: sniffing even open WiFi networks may be wiretapping.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: Act, camera cars, class action lawsuits, hardware addresses, homeowner, network names, s communications, Street, Ware, WiFi

Swiss Court Says Google’s Street View Breaks Privacy Rules – PCWorld Business Center

April 5, 2011 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

A Swiss court has ruled that Google is breaching citizens’ right to privacy with its Street View service and should take greater steps to obscure people caught by its cameras, according to court documents published on Monday.

The Federal Administrative Court made the ruling on March 30 following complaints from Switzerland’s data protection commissioner, Hanspeter Thuer.

The court took the view that Google’s business interests did not outweigh the rights of the individuals over their own image. It ordered the Internet giant to implement further measures to ensure anonymity before publishing faces and number plates captured in Switzerland on Street View, which came online there in August 2009.

Google currently uses automatic blurring technology to obscure people’s faces and vehicle number plates and says that it is 99 percent effective. Swiss citizens can also request additional blurring of an image via a link on Street View.

In its ruling, the court said that Google must manually obscure or blur identifying features rather than relying exclusively on the automated technology, particularly in the vicinity of “sensitive establishments” such as women’s shelters, retirement homes, prisons, schools, courts and hospitals.

via Swiss Court Says Google’s Street View Breaks Privacy Rules – PCWorld Business Center.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: Breaks, Business, data protection commissioner, federal administrative court, internet giant, pcworld, Street, swiss citizens, Technology, vehicle number plates

BBC News – Google’s UK Street View wi-fi data ‘deleted’

December 20, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which has been criticised for not taking a more hardline stance against Google, confirmed the deletion.

The first batch of wi-fi data, which included snippets of e-mails, URLs and passwords, was deleted in November.

But legal wrangles in other countries meant that the remaining data, all of which the firm said was collected in error, took more time to erase.

“We can confirm that the UK data has now been deleted, and that this has been independently certified,” said Google.

The deletion was carried out by US forensics firm Stroz Friedberg.

via BBC News – Google’s UK Street View wi-fi data ‘deleted’.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: Data, firm, forensics, Google, information commissioner, legal wrangles, news, Street, street view, URLs

BBC News – Google’s wi-fi data to be deleted

November 19, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

The UK’s information commissioner has said that wi-fi data accidentally collected by Google’s Street View cars will be deleted within the next nine months.

Deputy information commissioner David Smith told the BBC that there would be no further enquiries into the matter.

He said there was no indication that any information collected “had fallen into the wrong hands”.

It will not appease critics who called for the search giant to be fined.

There were no grounds for fining Google, Mr Smith told the BBC.

“We’d have had to find that there was substantial damage or distress to individuals from the collection of snippets of e-mails, URLs and passwords. We’d have to meet that criteria for a penalty to be imposed,” he said.

via BBC News – Google’s wi-fi data to be deleted.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: damage, Google, indication, information, information commissioner, matter, Street, street view, substantial damage, view cars

FCC investigating Google over Street View – Computerworld

November 11, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) confirmed on Wednesday that it is investigating whether Google broke any federal eavesdropping laws when collecting data for its controversial Street View mapping service.

The investigation stems from Google’s disclosure recently that its Street View cars collected passwords, e-mails and other personal information from unprotected residential wireless networks, the FCC said in a statement.

In light of Google’s disclosure, “we can now confirm that the Enforcement Bureau is looking into whether these actions violate the Communications Act,” Michele Ellison, chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, said in the statement.

“As the agency charged with overseeing the public airwaves, we are committed to ensuring that the consumers affected by this breach of privacy receive a full and fair accounting,” the FCC statement said.

via FCC investigating Google over Street View – Computerworld.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: eavesdropping, eavesdropping laws, enforcement, fcc statement, Federal, federal communications commission, Google, mapping, Street, view cars

BBC News – Google in ‘significant breach’ of UK data laws

November 3, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

There was a “significant breach” of the Data Protection Act when Google collected personal data via its Street View cars, the UK’s Information Commissioner has ruled.

But Google will not face a fine or any punishment, Christopher Graham added.

Instead, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will audit Google’s data protection practices.

The move marks a U-turn for the ICO which originally ruled that no data breach had occurred.

Last week the ICO vowed to look again at the evidence, after the Canadian data agency found the search giant in breach of its law.

via BBC News – Google in ‘significant breach’ of UK data laws.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: Act, data protection act, information commissioner, news, protection, protection practices, punishment, Street, street view, view cars

Google Privacy Lesson: Tighten Your Wi-Fi Security – Computerworld

October 26, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

I hate to blame the victim, but people who inadvertently gave up personal data to Google’s Street View cameras were really asking for trouble.

That’s because a simple precaution, clicking the encryption option in your router’s set up page, will foil Google’s cyber vacuum cleaners.

Then there’s the never ending Facebook privacy leakage scandal. Last week we learned that Facebook’s largest apps, which collectively boast tens of millions of users, are capturing personally identifiable information about Facebook users and sharing it with advertisers–violating both Facebook’s and the app makers’ own privacy policies. And now thanks to a research paper that’s gotten little attention, it appears that gay men and women on Facebook may have been inadvertently outed to its advertisers.

via Google Privacy Lesson: Tighten Your Wi-Fi Security – Computerworld.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: encryption option, Facebook, Google, precaution, Street, street view, trouble, vacuum cleaners, victim

Google to tighten privacy policies after Wi-Fi fiasco – Computerworld

October 23, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Under fire for months over its capture of people’s Wi-Fi traffic data, Google has announced several steps aimed at preventing similar missteps in the future.

At the same time, Google is acknowledging that its inadvertent Wi-Fi snooping collected not only data fragments but entire e-mail messages, website addresses and passwords.

Google has been in hot water with privacy advocates, government agencies and concerned individuals since its disclosure in May that, since 2007, its Street View cars, in addition to taking photos for its Maps product, had also collected Wi-Fi transmission data from unencrypted networks.

Government agencies and legislators in the U.S. and abroad are investigating the issue, and a number of users have filed privacy-breach lawsuits against the company.

Google had intended the Street View cars to only grab and store open Wi-Fi networks’ names (SSIDs) and their unique router numbers (MAC addresses) for use in Google location-based services.

Due to a software glitch, the Google cars intercepted and stored Web traffic data, which initially the company had said was highly fragmented, but that it now is admitting includes the full text of e-mail messages and passwords.

via Google to tighten privacy policies after Wi-Fi fiasco – Computerworld.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: fiasco, mail messages, privacy, privacy advocates, privacy breach, software glitch, Street, view cars, water, website