Append "_nomap" to your AP's SSID to opt out of Google Location Services (2011)

Re:Append "_nomap" to your AP's SSID to opt out of Google Lo... by aviraldg on Wednesday March 05, 2014 @10:31AM (#7347482)

Did you even read what this does? It's used to aid geopositioning. No data from the network is logged, other than its SSID/MAC address and its approximate location.

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Re:Append "_nomap" to your AP's SSID to opt out of Google Lo... by bananas on Wednesday March 05, 2014 @10:32AM (#7347487)

Yes I understand it entirely.

There are enough AP's around me for Apple Maps to know if I'm in bed or having a poo. You can see the marker move.

More services like this are bad.

They already know who I am.

What could possibly go wrong?

Edit: when I say more services are bad like this I mean we should be opt-in for both collection and usage rather than opt out.

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Re:Append "_nomap" to your AP's SSID to opt out of Google Lo... by oconnore on Wednesday March 05, 2014 @10:42AM (#7347553)

That problem is entirely due to you choosing to run Google/Apple software on a network attached computer that you carry with you everywhere (even, apparently, to poo).

Mapping the source of radio signals is common and expected. Your Wifi router is basically a big bright lightbulb that flashes with a unique pattern, and can be seen through walls. You can't legitimately ask the rest of the world not to notice it, the same way you can't request that no one use your porch light as a landmark.

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Re:Append "_nomap" to your AP's SSID to opt out of Google Lo... by droopybuns on Wednesday March 05, 2014 @11:02AM (#7347703)

No. It shouldn't be expected that a $410b market cap company is out mapping this data and selling it to advertisers. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Not a trustworthy company.

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Re:Append "_nomap" to your AP's SSID to opt out of Google Lo... by davepage on Wednesday March 05, 2014 @10:44AM (#7347576)

There is a funny bump on the side of your toy called a power button. Perhaps you could too could learn the joy of silence?

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Re:Append "_nomap" to your AP's SSID to opt out of Google Lo... by _wmd on Wednesday March 05, 2014 @10:51AM (#7347621)

Except for that one small time in Europe when they "accidentally" captured live traffic en masse.. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2010/05/17/google-admits-s...

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Re:Append "_nomap" to your AP's SSID to opt out of Google Lo... by yohui on Wednesday March 05, 2014 @10:56AM (#7347654)

What's with the scare quotes? Are you suggesting it was not an accident?

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Re:Append "_nomap" to your AP's SSID to opt out of Google Lo... by nieve on Thursday March 06, 2014 @02:43AM (#7352419)

You may have missed the bits that came out about the capture going on with the knowledge of some Google employees. Th e original developer has plenty of experience with wifi data capture and knew exactly what you could do with the data as well as that you didn't need full packet dumps to snag SSIDs.

"Google long maintained that the engineer was solely responsible for this aspect of the project, which resulted in official investigations, some still unresolved, in more than a dozen countries. But a complete version of the F.C.C.’s report, released by Google on Saturday, has cast doubt on that explanation, saying that the engineer informed at least one superior and that seven engineers who worked on the code were all in a position to know what was going on." - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/technology/engineer-in-goo...

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Re:Append "_nomap" to your AP's SSID to opt out of Google Lo... by eli on Wednesday March 05, 2014 @11:03AM (#7347709)

I don't think "en masse" is a fair way to describe a handful of stray packets per AP as the car drove by.

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Re:Append "_nomap" to your AP's SSID to opt out of Google Lo... by scott_karana on Wednesday March 05, 2014 @05:02PM (#7350264)

200 GB is a "handful"?

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-05/03/googles-wi-fi...

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Re:Append "_nomap" to your AP's SSID to opt out of Google Lo... by eli on Wednesday March 05, 2014 @05:40PM (#7350469)

shrug

That doesn't sound like very much data for a fleet of vehicles to collect over the course of a few years. Pretty sure it was just a handful of packets per (unencrypted) access point, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

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Re:Append "_nomap" to your AP's SSID to opt out of Google Lo... by Cthulhu_ on Wednesday March 05, 2014 @10:51AM (#7347617)

> No data from the network is logged

Nowadays it shouldn't, no, but Google's had some lawsuits where their Streetview cars accidentally scooped up random bits of data crossing over the wifi lines. This measure was added afterwards, iirc.

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