Really, I have come to trust Google. They make things easier for regular people, without asking for anything back. They make GREAT products. They donate millions of dollars to charity and fun countless non-profit events. I honestly don’t mind if Google knows my browsing history, or my address, or phone number or such. They’re going to own the world at this rate, and honestly? It doesn’t bother me.

What a complete idiot!!  How the heck is it possible for people to be so unaware, so stupid, so perfectly fine with “it don’t bother me, it shouldn’t bother you” mentality?
I am not a Christian but I will fight to the death for their right to practice the religion of their choice. It upsets me to find that most American’s do not care about the rights of others…. simply thinking of themselves, only.
WTH are you even at this site Michael Wood?

This is just another example of how private corporations will control the little person. For example. if your employer wants to investigate you they just need to go to Google to find out all about you for a small fee. The regular person will not be able to buy this information or even know it was sold. The idea that all your information being sold might not upset you know but how it may be used in the future without your consent should worry you. It revises the Constitution and Bill of Rights without our consent and to date The Power elite do not have a track record that one can truly trust. This will effect your children more than you.

I don’t think the creation of google was created for this specific purpose (spying). It’s a fairly new technology… that’s only going to be enhanced in the next few years. It is a great way of gathering public AND personal information from people since using the whole “auto-fill” option just happens to be extremely convenient and people don’t realize that the information you voluntarily supply can be used for this sort of purpose. However we shouldn’t completely condemn the use of google. It’s definitely proven to be extremely beneficial for everyone. It’s just that people have this naive thought that the internet is completely anonymous, so they just openly enter whatever information they have about themselves. Obviously some people know about this and will take advantage of this to further benefit their own agenda. So I guess it’s a “use it at your own risk” sort of thing.

There is no conflict of interest in this story. This is just corruption, most of our government is corrupted, “I will contribute X amount of dollars to your campaign fund”, then Googles problem just disappears. That above  all else is why people should be in the streets now, we lost our government a long time ago to corruption. The Wall street fiasco, corporations, mass media and government are all addicted to corruption. I’ll give you this if you do that, so they do it, get rich, go into the history books they write and retire to Dubai or Switzerland if there is any pressure. Where’s mine, oh I forgot I’m not the president so I cannot get in on it. Obama, is ripe with Monsanto, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Google cronies, he must of got a lot of election funds, heck Google it.

I’ve always been a big fan of Project Censored, I buy the book every year to help support the cause, but seeing something like this really makes me wonder if the group isn’t starting to lean a bit to sensationalism to garner attention.

The article states “Google  has claimed the data was accidentally by their street view cars…”  as though they blatantly lied.  The letter cited from David Vladeck states: “Earlier this year, in response to a request from the data protection authority in 
Hamburg, Germany, Google discovered that the software on the Street View cars had also been 
collecting some “payload” data  contents of  communications sent over unsecured wireless 
networks.”  

That sounds suspiciously like confirmation to me that the data was collected by the street view cars, while they drove around.  I suppose it can be debated whether it was intentional or accidental.

Here’s the rub though:  It really doesn’t much matter if it was intentional or not.  The data collected was from unsecured, unencrypted wireless access points.  Data beamed by consumers, either knowingly or unwittingly, for anyone to capture.  Its a wireless system, broadcasting open communications into public spaces.  It is no more ‘spying’ to capture some of that data than it is for me to listen to the radio in my car.  Anyone with a laptop could have captured the same data.

In short, they didn’t sit in one location and collect everything passing by, they didn’t break into people’s computers and steal it, and they didn’t crack WEP or WPA encryption to get it.  It was broadcast IN THE OPEN.

I personally believe most companies are allowed to keep too much personal information on us, Google included, but to label this ‘spying’ seems a broad and somewhat sensationalistic overreach.

At the last Bilderberg Group meeting held in Switzerland, one of the invited guest was Eric Schmidt, Executive of Google

the issue is that the data google finds, google publishes and makes available to the public.
So what might be a relatively minor risk confined to ppl. wardriving, becomes a greater risk when google comes to your hood and posts your keys on 4chan.
And yeah, Obama can’t really claim to be unbiased with so many google staffers and former staffers in his entourage, so yeah I consider it a conflict of interest.
bottom line, whether the data was collected accidentally is moot- they made the decision to post the data, and should serve themselves a takedown notice!

google doesnt need to spy, its owns the majority of internet searches, your IP and the content you view.
in a single search it knows most of your computers data and your address though its own browser CHROME.
Lets not forget GMAIL if google wanted it knows all your email content and of course social media information found by bots.

so you already give them everything they want, if they wanted it.

Just read a new book, Wealth vs.
Work: How 1% Victimize 99%. It’s about the vanishing

American dream- a shrinking middle class, increased poverty
and inequality. It’s about a return to the old aristocratic order, a world
where hereditary privilege and power trump excellence and merit and where
ordinary people, and those who are less able and less vigorous, are trampled by
greed, materialism and crony capitalism. It’s about Wall Street vs. Main Street, and
about the economic decline of labor unions and working people. It’s a gritty
book!

marissa mayer is a yahoo executive (the chief executive officer, to be precise) not a Google executive like stated above.

google makes available what they CAN control. Why use google?? why not use hotbot, lycos, or others? I find google’s listings are rather.. um, “sifted” for maximum confusion. There was a book that came out in ’99 wish I could remember the title, anyway it talked about how Microsoft and others give the user the impression that they are “in control” yet their search results, news headlines are all carefully crafted and that no one is in control except the ones at the top.

YES you’re right. I wonder how much of my gplus posts and rants are being stacked up against me for some future nefarious purpose perhaps. Also I disagree with you on just how “beneficial” this all is? how? using internet to learn stuff or what? what’s wrong with real, hardcover- Encyclopedia Brittanica. What’s wrong with TALKING and meeting your neighbors. How about doing something about your local community, local corruption, instead of using boards to opine on world events (like I am right now) ;p

I wonder why these cars were even equipeded with the necessary hardware and software to enable them to “accidentally” access peoples private information. I would think the only thing necessary for these cars would be the camera equiptment and GPS.