Google Street View cars collected Wi-Fi data from unsecured home networks while photographing streets. Privacy expert Robert Siciliano warns of identity-theft risks and advises securing wireless routers. Google admitted to the practice and is discussing it with regulators.
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Well, tonight, this is Google's stunning confession. It did a lot more than just take a map of your street.
Coming up, how it may also have seen some of your personal information.
Tonight, Google admits making a big mistake and putting your privacy at risk. The company sends out cars equipped with cameras to take pictures for its Street View, and as Jim Smith reports, they've also been taking in some personal information.
You may not realize it, but a picture of your own home is very likely available on the internet. Thanks to the popular Google Street View map program. But what if Google captured much more than a picture? What if those special cars that drive around and take photos of your neighborhood also grabbed details of what you're doing online?
There could have been enough data to steal somebody's identity.
Robert Siciliano is a computer privacy and protection expert. He's reacting to word that Google Street View cars passing by homes also collected information off unsecured residential wireless networks.
This takes it to a whole nother level. I mean, when they're peeking right directly at people's emails and instant messages, information on their hard drive, that's a whole nother level of a privacy violation.
Google says it was only trying to find Wi-Fi hotspots offered by businesses, but something went wrong. The company admits this happened all over the world, from Europe to Silicon Valley in California, where one computer user is feeling violated. Really? I do not know that. Um, that's not good. Google is speaking to regulators in several countries, including the United States, about how to dispose of this data, which it claimed it never used. Siciliano says you can protect yourself by making sure your wireless router is protected with a password.
When you have an unsecured wireless connection, it's just like, you know, leaving your, uh, the front door to your home open, uh, and just inviting the world to come inside and take a peek. In Revere, Jim Smith, WBZ News.
Tonight, Google says its Street View cars will stay in park until this problem is fixed.
