Aussies probe Google

[Skybird]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asi...c/10249091.stm

Google has admitted doing so, but apologised, saying it was in error.

Strange. Just a very short while ago, Google has been probed in Germany for the very same reason: collecting not only information on private WLANs, but also collecting personal data that were transmitted via these WLANs. In Germany, they said it was just an error.

And now they do the same ting on the other side of the planet, and again say "it'S just an error that occured"...?

Google's reputation as the globe's greatest data-kraken is for no reason. It still stuns me to see how little people care for giving away personal data and information to a commercial company outside any legal control - but call down heaven and hell and spell the end of mankind if considerably less ammounts of data would be collected by government services in order to print them onto an ID card.

[Jimbuna]

[krashkart]

I've never really liked Google anyway.

BURN THEM! BUUURRN THEM!!

[DarkFish]

hmm? accidentally collecting WLAN data? must be one heck of a bug in their streetview photographing software....

[Schroeder]

And that's why I don't use Google. (Or at least not without a few proxies between me and it if other search platforms really can't bring up any useful results)

[Skybird]

I use Google search for terms that I consider to be "uncritical", and Google Earth 8which to my knowledge does not collect personal data). But all other Google stuff, especially Chrome I would not even touch even when getting money. The German Federal Police issued as ecurity warning over Chrome last year, the sharpest computer warning the office every has released in its history.

If you use Chrome, MySpace and Facebook, you simply have to know that these services are not really free, the deal is surrender of your privatesphere and personal data, for free access to some free time entertainment. If later you find that data collected from you is being used to compromise you, then remeber that you have willed that deal.

However, many people, young ones, simply do not know of these inherent dangers, and are not in a position to form a realistic assessment of the poential threats involved, and as a youngster, your priorities and oyur time horizon works very different anyway (not to mention that you do not listen to adult's advice anyway ). I think that schools should be the focus of providing everybody with the solid basic info on these issues. Which means that molst teachers have to run according trainign courses first, and must update themselves constantly.

[Schroeder]

Do you know what's really awesome?
Have you ever heard of Ad-Aware? It's a tool that removes SPYWARE from your computer. When I updated it last time I got this message:


For all those who don't speak German, the Ad-Aware pop-up asks me to install CHROME....
Am I still supposed to take them serious?

[Skybird]

That is absurd.

I used Ad-Aware until one year ago.

[Jimbuna]

Last version I had was 2008....caused no end of trouble

[krashkart]

I use Spybot Search and Destroy, and a CA spyware scanner. And until recently I was using Chrome as my primary browser, because it was more compatible with Facebook than Firefox or IE. A couple of days ago I updated the security suite, and wouldn't you know it? All of a sudden Chrome doesn't work - the firewall has it blocked. Firefox and IE still work just fine. I'd already abandoned Facebook, so losing Chrome is nothing, really. Now, as far as Google Search? I've never used it. Can't stand the mass of results it hits me with, don't want to learn the cool Google filter tags to streamline the search, so I work a little harder with Dogpile to get my answers.

I despise Google.

{EDIT}

Welll... they did give us Google Earth, though.

[DarkFish]

Originally Posted by krashkart

Now, as far as Google Search? I've never used it. Can't stand the mass of results it hits me with, don't want to learn the cool Google filter tags to streamline the search, so I work a little harder with Dogpile to get my answers.

I always find these differences in site usages between the US and the Netherlands pretty amusing. For example, in the Netherlands, it's almost unheard of to use a search engine other than Google. Similarly, we Dutchmen almost exclusively use msn for chatting, and use either hotmail.com or gmail.com mail/msn accounts. I've got exactly one contact on msn using a @yahoo.com account, and he's from the US
We've also got our own networking site, hyves.nl, which is much more famous here than facebook, most friends of mine not even having a facebook account, while having an active hyves page. (and from what I know about facebook, hyves is also much more user-friendly than facebook, and has much better privacy options)

Wonder where these differences come from

Only reason this is happening is that we've got a Luddite moron of a communications minister that carries on like a spoiled child when people tell him no and don't do what he demands -This whole google thing was sorted ages ago ,but dear conroid has pushed this to the the AFP because google told him no when he demanded they censor their search results in the same way the Chinese demanded , he also tried the same with yahoo and others but google's been one of the biggest voices against his censorship plans.
If you haven't heard about the great firewall of Australia then this is a good place to start http://www.efa.org.au/ and 80plus threads here http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum...t=1457947&p=49 ,there are many groups in Australia and around the world that are against his plan which will have us ending up with the internet censored to the levels of China and North Korea!

What we have is a plan to have a secret blacklist ,where there's no oversight or transparency and no way to appeal or get removed if your site is placed on it by mistake ,( a leaked copy of the blacklist had a dentist and other similar sites on it!), and there is zero safeguards to prevent this or future governments placing opponents or anything they don't like on the list!

[Reece]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Last version I had was 2008....caused no end of trouble

The old one you had Jim I had a lot of trouble with the program locking up while it was initiating, updating etc, I since updated to a later version and runs with no problems at all! very happy! BTW I didn't install Chrome!

[TarJak]

My question would be why don't these people secure their networks. I can understand "public" WiFi hotspots being unsecured, but if you leave your home WiFi network unsecured then you will have no protection or reason to consider that anything crossing that network is private.

Google on the other hand should not be sniffing people's networks regardless of whether they are secure. I'd suggest that they amount of data they would get from their moving StreetView car is going to be pretty minimal though. OK some people's networks where they are stopped at an intersection for a few minutes might get a work over, but on the whole about all they might find out is channel, network ID security status and if unsecured might get the IP addresses and a small amount of data from them in the few seconds it takes to drive past even a low speeds. (driving not network).

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by darius359au

Only reason this is happening is that we've got a Luddite moron of a communications minister that carries on like a spoiled child when people tell him no and don't do what he demands -This whole google thing was sorted ages ago ,but dear conroid has pushed this to the the AFP because google told him no when he demanded they censor their search results in the same way the Chinese demanded , he also tried the same with yahoo and others but google's been one of the biggest voices against his censorship plans.
If you haven't heard about the great firewall of Australia then this is a good place to start http://www.efa.org.au/ and 80plus threads here http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum...t=1457947&p=49 ,there are many groups in Australia and around the world that are against his plan which will have us ending up with the internet censored to the levels of China and North Korea!

What we have is a plan to have a secret blacklist ,where there's no oversight or transparency and no way to appeal or get removed if your site is placed on it by mistake ,( a leaked copy of the blacklist had a dentist and other similar sites on it!), and there is zero safeguards to prevent this or future governments placing opponents or anything they don't like on the list!

Been whinging about this for some time. Conjob and co are completely nuts if they think we will continue to put up with that crap piece of legislation.