Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

blogs.computerworld.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 312 posts

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

#201

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

dominotw wrote: post #188
LaGrange wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I don't like at all the idea of government surveillance without court order, I find the idea of corporate surveillance even more horrifying. Actually, this is what amuses me in the whole privacy affair. So a bunch of companies were using and abusing your data to target ads at you and shape your news stream so that it's more addictive, and people were cheering. A government (still mostly democratic, though not f…

I dont really see your logic, Gubment can put you in prison, take your rights away, companies targeting ads can't. It makes sense that one would be outraged at the former.

It's spelt "government". Spelling it "Gubment" doesn't suddenly turn everyone who's reading your comment against the notion of an elected democracy, it just makes you look stupid.

And the reason that it's much scarier if private companies abuse privacy than if the government does it, is that you yourself decide who the government is. You don't get that right wrt a private company.

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

#202

Post by ISL »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #172
guelo wrote: post #134

Your WiFi password is only useful for someone who is within 100 feet of your house. If you have federal agents surveilling you from 100 feet away you have way bigger problems than your WiFi password.

Actually its from further away than that with a high gain directional antenna (I've hit WiFi hot spots about a mile distant using same) but the point is that they can do this from outside your property. You would probably know if someone was in your house but you'd be hard pressed to notice a Yagi antenna pointed at your window from across the street or down the block a bit. That said, I read the article more as 'yet…

Especially if that Yagi antenna is on the other side of an RF-transparent wall (most walls are).

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

#203

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

anywherenotes wrote: post #158
LaGrange wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I don't like at all the idea of government surveillance without court order, I find the idea of corporate surveillance even more horrifying. Actually, this is what amuses me in the whole privacy affair. So a bunch of companies were using and abusing your data to target ads at you and shape your news stream so that it's more addictive, and people were cheering. A government (still mostly democratic, though not f…

current government is irrelevant. The data captured now will exist likely forever. If at any point there's a new leader who wants to wipe out a race, he'll have much easier time than checking everyone's papers. I don't mind getting targeted ads, I prefer them to spam ads.

If all things are equal, then I too prefer targeted ads to non-targeted ads (I'm not going along with the "spam ads" labelling because all ads are spam). However, if it's a choice between a company having all my private data and sending me targeted ads, and the opposite of each, I tend to lean towards the latter.

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

#204

Post by blhack »

ohazi wrote: post #186
guelo wrote: post #134

Your WiFi password is only useful for someone who is within 100 feet of your house. If you have federal agents surveilling you from 100 feet away you have way bigger problems than your WiFi password.

I'd like to point out that Google also has devices that they control within 100 feet of almost every WiFi hotspot in the world.

What?

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

#205

Post by [deleted] »

qbproger wrote: post #190
nly wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MAC filtering is useless, even in combination with WPA2. An attacker only has to sniff for a MAC your AP is happy to talk to and then changes theirs.

Is there a way to lock down a router in a way that can't be so easily spoofed?

[deleted]

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

#207

Post by ChuckMcM »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #172
guelo wrote: post #134

Your WiFi password is only useful for someone who is within 100 feet of your house. If you have federal agents surveilling you from 100 feet away you have way bigger problems than your WiFi password.

Actually its from further away than that with a high gain directional antenna (I've hit WiFi hot spots about a mile distant using same) but the point is that they can do this from outside your property. You would probably know if someone was in your house but you'd be hard pressed to notice a Yagi antenna pointed at your window from across the street or down the block a bit. That said, I read the article more as 'yet…

For those wondering this looks like the antenna I have : http://www.ccrane.com/antennas/wifi-antennas/point-to-point-... and we use it for its "intended" purpose which is getting on to the wifi of the camp host at a camp ground :-)

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

#208

Post by jlgreco »

dominotw wrote: post #188
LaGrange wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I don't like at all the idea of government surveillance without court order, I find the idea of corporate surveillance even more horrifying. Actually, this is what amuses me in the whole privacy affair. So a bunch of companies were using and abusing your data to target ads at you and shape your news stream so that it's more addictive, and people were cheering. A government (still mostly democratic, though not f…

I dont really see your logic, Gubment can put you in prison, take your rights away, companies targeting ads can't. It makes sense that one would be outraged at the former.

Companies are likely "interested" in a group of people that are not traditionally commonly seen as targets by the government. I'm thinking specifically of middle-class law-abiding citizens who just happen to be tech workers at a rival company.

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

#210

Post by chinpokomon »

Does MAC filtering at the router level help at all? If the backup option is turned on, does Google also save your MAC addresses? If not, that seems like a good start to prevent someone from connecting to your network, even if they know the password. Obviously this won't help for public hot spots, but I always assume that public hot spots are already open to anyone. What if you are connecting to a Wi-Fi network using MSCHAP or MSCHAPv2? Does Google now know my domain login and password? That seems like a huge gaff.
Post reply on HN