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Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

blogs.computerworld.com

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Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#21

Post by amirmc »

crb wrote: post #9

Google also knows all the secrets of General David Petraeus, or anyone else that uses Gmail. And everything you've (secretly) searched for. Google's business model is based on aggregating that information and gaining value out of the data, mostly in the form of advertising. As soon as it lets a major secret out, even just once, it's game over, and no-one will ever trust a secret to Google again. This is why they publ…

> "As soon as it lets a major secret out, even just once, it's game over, and no-one will ever trust a secret to Google again."

I used to think this but now I'm not so sure. With the way services like FB and others slowly change settings, Sony gets hacked and other data breaches, news about govt spying etc, I wonder whether the mass public is suffering from Learned Helplessness [1]. After all, what alternatives do most people really have?

[1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#22

Post by demallien »

lotsofcows wrote: post #14
zobzu wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, but to be fair, this issue deserves to be more well known. it wont be fixed if google isn't blamed and shamed for it repeatedly.

Blamed and shamed for what? I suspect most people are more than happy that they can carry their existing settings across to a new 'phone and it Just Works™...

It's convenient for the owner of the Android phone, but the wifi password is not necessarily theirs to give away. That's the problem. It's not because your friends and family have given you their wifi password that they intended to give that password to Google as well. You're trading their security for your convenience.

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#24

Post by acqq »

rcthompson wrote: post #5
tiernano wrote: post #3

when i read the title, i though "really?! how?" then i read the article and realized any time i have restored my android phone, then entered my Google account, it automagically connects to all access points i usually use (home, work, other office, etc)...

But they didn't have to design it in such a way as to share the passwords with google. All your data could be encrypted with your google account's password (or some other secret derived from it) on the device and backed up encrypted. When you enter your account password on a new device, it then downloads the encrypted data and decrypts and restores it. Same user experience without exposing private data.

It's shared with Google as long as Google stores your Google account password as the actual sequence of characters and not as the result of bcrypt processing and as long as the data copied to Google aren't encrypted locally. Local encryption has the effect that as soon as you forget your password, the data stored as the backup are unusable, even you can make Google reset your Google account password.

Security is always a trade-off.

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#25

Post by sudomal »

runn1ng wrote: post #20

I am not sure why is this such a problem. OK, when NSA goes physically near my home, they can connect to my WiFi and secretly use my internet connection. That's not really what I am concerned about.

People secure their Wi-Fi for more than just their connection. There is likely to be file servers, media centres, printers, scanners, radios, TVs, tablets, phones, computers with shared folders, security cameras etc all connected to the local network.

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#27

Post by r0h1n »

crb wrote: post #9

Google also knows all the secrets of General David Petraeus, or anyone else that uses Gmail. And everything you've (secretly) searched for. Google's business model is based on aggregating that information and gaining value out of the data, mostly in the form of advertising. As soon as it lets a major secret out, even just once, it's game over, and no-one will ever trust a secret to Google again. This is why they publ…

> As soon as it lets a major secret out, even just once, it's game over, and no-one will ever trust a secret to Google again.

Just out of curiosity, how would we know even if a secret was let out to, say, the NSA or US Govt? Because (a) Google isn't allowed to legally acknowledge it and (b) US LEOs will use "parallel construction" to obscure the fact that they obtained such secret information.

Moreover, if you're not a US citizen, even lesser chances of ever coming to know what information is being handed over/intercepted by the US Govt. If Presidents of countries can be targeted for surveillance, no reason a common person cannot.

Please note, I am not saying Google was specifically guilty of passing on info to the NSA in these cases, but just that, even if they were forced to, there's no way the affected users would come to know.

Link: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/02/20291489-snowd...

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#28

Post by aestra »

prab97 wrote: post #10

For convenience, most people won't opt out of it. Most people won't bother at all. Google employees(or even NSA if you don't do anything illegal) coming to your home/office to use your WiFi is a joke! Only the paranoid ones are perturbed by these kinds of revelations, and they are ready to face the inconvenience caused. I didn't use last pass until recently when keeping a difficult password on every site became a maj…

The encryption/decryption is done client side.

This is a simple version of how it works, your master password isn't sent to lastpass, just an encryption key which is created with your email address and master password. On the website this is done client side with javascript. When you click on the pencil icon, you are reading the decrypted file, which you have decrypted on your own computer, with javascript.

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#29

Post by bloodorange »

prab97 wrote: post #10

For convenience, most people won't opt out of it. Most people won't bother at all. Google employees(or even NSA if you don't do anything illegal) coming to your home/office to use your WiFi is a joke! Only the paranoid ones are perturbed by these kinds of revelations, and they are ready to face the inconvenience caused. I didn't use last pass until recently when keeping a difficult password on every site became a maj…

People tend to reuse passwords across multiple services and devices. Stealing their WiFi password is not something they will be comfortable with.

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#30

Post by cowls »

runn1ng wrote: post #20

I am not sure why is this such a problem. OK, when NSA goes physically near my home, they can connect to my WiFi and secretly use my internet connection. That's not really what I am concerned about.

Agreed, Google already have all our info anyway so not sure why they would send someone round to connect up to our Wireless networks..
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