SirBC

June 21, 2010 at 10:26pm

Open WiFi = writing your usernames and passwords with a Sharpie on your front door for all the world to see. And then getting upset with Google, and everyone else with eyes, when they happen to look at your door.

TheElite1x721987

June 21, 2010 at 9:58pm

I second this. While it might not be, say, ethical, to grab password and emails from people. intended or not. I firmly believe that google did in fact, not break any laws. Open WiFi networks means you are broadcasting your data for all to see if they wish to. Honestly, I feel strangely safer if google has this data versus some ill-intentioned wardriving geek (which I'm sure has happened many times). These lawsuits are frivolous. I'm not entirely sure about the European countries as they have some strange laws regarding what is public and private and what you can do with "public" info, but here in the States, I really do not believe any laws at all were broken. The lawyers need to find some worthwhile cause to rally behind because this is NOT it...

Walnut

June 21, 2010 at 9:56pm

Yeah, I've heard enough of this bullshit. People need to learn to not be so damn lazy when setting up their routers. Even for someone tech-illiterate it shouldn't take much more than an hour. If you're sitting in your house with your windows open, yelling personal information through a megaphone, you've got no right to take offense when someone overhears. In fact, you should just be glad they're not doing something malicious with the info they've got, count your blessings, and fix the problem. 

Vegan

June 21, 2010 at 7:42pm

"On the other side of the Atlantic, the French National Commission on
Computing and Liberty, which is also probing the matter, has found that
the Wi-Fi
data collected by Street View Cars in that country included passwords
and e-mail."

 

And whose fault is that? Not Googles. You broadcast it, it's your fault.