Archive for category Google

Google’s Street View Hated By More Countries

Aug 10

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Google, surveillance | No Comments

Google’s invasive Street View mobile, a small car that drives along roads worldwide, snapping photos and soaking up wireless data, is coming under increasing hostility. South Korea has recently raided Google’s files. Bloomberg News reports:

South Korean police raided Google Inc.’s Seoul office as part of an investigation into possible breaches of privacy laws resulting from the company’s collection of data for its Street View mapping service.

Law-enforcement officials confiscated materials from Google in a raid today and will ask the company to surrender all data that may have been collected illegally from late last year until May, the Korean National Police Agency said in a statement. Google said it will cooperate with the investigation.

Europe and the United States have made some tepid outrages, too. Germany has made a bold stand (I believe they were the ones who spoke first about this issue).

What do you think? As nifty as Google Street View is, Google should abandon it. I don’t believe Google has good intentions, for one; secondly, the “nifty” aspect of Google Earth should not come at the expense of other countries and the people. People have the right to be safe and secure in their persons and effects. That includes being monitored.

Tags: Google Earth, news

Google Maps Recording Your MAC Address, too

Apr 26

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Google, crime, surveillance | 1 Comment

Wow. Unbelievable. Unbelievable that Google would do this, and even more unbelievable that so little is done to stop them.

Google Street View logs WiFi networks, Mac addresses

Google’s roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it’s got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users’ unique Mac (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along.

Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar says he’s “horrified” by the discovery.

“I am appalled… I call upon Google to delete previously unlawfully collected personal data on the wireless network immediately and stop the rides for Street View,” according to German broadcaster ARD.

Spooks have long desired the ability to cross reference the Mac address of a user’s connection with their real identity and virtual identity, such as their Gmail or Facebook account.

If this was a clan of teenagers, they’d be arrested for voyeurism or something. But nooooo, Google can do it!

And this is all the more reason to ditch the wireless and get wired. You bet.

Google’s uniquely cavalier approach to privacy, and its potential ability to cross reference the information raises additional concerns. Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said internet users shouldn’t worry about privacy unless they have something to hide.

Eric Schmidt is a schmuck. I don’t have to answer to that jerk. Who the heck does he think he is?! As if HE can monitor anyone he wants, and scold us for chafing against Google’s imposed “morality,” that we should be grateful or something?! Unbelievable.

This is scary. Not only are they hell bent on monitoring us, they believe that it’s their moral duty to monitor us.

Tags: Big Brother

Government Gmail Use: Is It Wise?

Jan 14

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Google, crime, email programs, news | 2 Comments

I saw this excellent article by Paul Strassman (writing a guest post for Larry Dignan) at ZDNet. I admit, though- I did not know that government officials– in this case, the Department of Defense– use Gmail for their government correspondence. Holy cow!

Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra has been a consistent advocate of increasing the government’s use of commercially available technologies, such as Gmail. In fact, as the District of Columbia’s chief technology officer, Kundra implemented Google Apps, including Gmail, for all District employees.

A number of Department of Defense (DoD) organizations are already using Gmail. Meanwhile, Google has made secure Gmail the default choice in light of the cyberattack the company detailed on Tuesday.

…Once you can wiretap, you can eventually figure out how to distinguish Gmail traffic from other traffic, and reverse engineer how Gmail data is replicated across servers.

There is no defense against a hostile party with full physical access to your server room. That is why Google’s only logical option is to withdraw all physical servers from China.

There are two Google data centers in China, almost surely co-hosted on shared facilities and not owned by Google. Similarly, there is a co-hosted facility in Russia. Unless a facility is owned and operated by Google it would be always suspect, and even then it would not qualify to operate DoD classified mail.

DoD should therefore not consider Gmail as a viable option because it cannot be trusted. Only a secure DoD Private Cloud, isolated from the Internet, can be seen as an acceptable option.

It’s a contentious issue- the comments on the post are filled with such incredulity as I express. And an update to the post was issued later today, when Google spokesman spoke out:

The premise of Mr. Strassman’s post is without merit: there’s no need to withdraw servers that store Gmail information from China because there aren’t any there.

I think Mr. Strassman’s post IS merited… because while Mr. Strassman does mention the recent cyberattack on Google’s Gmail as an impetus for moving DoD mail away from Gmail, the premise IS that the DoD, and truly all government offices, should have their own secure email system outside of the “cloud” maintained by global business. It’s just good sense. It blows my mind that the DoD has email with Gmail! Doesn’t the government have their own system?! It mirrors the same bafflement that I have regarding the SSL issues with online banking websites– their security is pitiable, whereas my photo-sharing account is tighter than a drum. Crazy!

Tags: China, government, hackers

Finding Literature Online

Dec 22

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Google, PDF reader, blogs, educational programs, free stuff, websites | 1 Comment

It’s winter for us in the United States– that means more inside activities. For us, it means more reading. I have a stack of books that I’ve ordered from the library, but there are several books that I desire to read that my library does not carry (I like history books, especially ancient civilizations and British history; these seems to be in short order at my library, which carries a ton of fiction stuff).

I considered getting one of those e-reader gadgets (like the Kindle or Sony e-Reader) but the price tag gave me sticker shock. But I found that one doesn’t really need one of those gadgets to read books, not really. There are a ton of e-books to be found online. And if you have a netbook, it’s as easy as starting up a browser or opening a pdf file. Here’s a quick list of e-books to be found online. All of these sites have free books and other forms of literature to read.

Google Books
By far, Google has the largest selection of books and magazines, new and old. I like their library because they have many books that have been out of print for decades , which are very useful to me for my research.

Project Gutenberg is a huge site, with thousands of books you can download or read online.

The Christian Classic Ethereal Library has many old books and documents online for reading.

American Rhetoric has a large database of speeches, documents, videos, and more.

The Classic Bookshelf The website is a little hokey (old), but they have a searchable database and some great classics online.

The Open Library is good.

The Online Books Page is run by the University of Pennsylvania and has a searchable database.

Diploma Guide.com has a listing of free books and textbooks you can read online, as well as a listing of universities in the U.S. (public and private) where you can search for more.

The Internet Archive Text Archive
This website has a large selection of older books.

The Cornell University Library has some very old journals from early America. And The Making of America has a selection of older books, too.

Children’s Storybooks Online has children’s books.

And this list just scratches the surface! If you still haven’t found a particular book, try searching for “read books online” and/or the title or genre of the literature you want.

Living the Web: Search Engines Take on Real-Time Data

Dec 10

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Google, Internet, networking, search engines | Comments off

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of LeapFish Inc. All opinions are 100% mine.

If the 1990s could be considered the Information Age, then the 200s could be considered the Uber-Information Age. Even as long as four or five years ago, the Internet was still relatively static– this was before blogging became a hot commodity, before social media and networking took off– today’s Internet is a giant, a rapidly-morphing, ever-changing giant. Search engines have largely bypassed and ignored the constant stream of “real time” data: opinion forums, blogs, conversations, social media, and communities.

Ah, but the times, they are a-changing.

I’ve been watching a newer search engine company, Leapfish, take the initiative with “real time” search data, or, as Leapfish calls it, “The Living Web.” They’ve done a remarkable job with a video showcasing the enormous growth of the Internet and therefore the great need for a search engine featuring real-time data. And Google has caught on, too– Google just recently announced their newest product, “Real-Time Search Live Now.” It’s a kind of running commentary displaying the latest buzz on your search. It’s veyr fascinating and a bit overwhelming! There is just so much information out there.

I’m liking the changes toward real-time search data. I do a lot of searches for reviews or for technical problems, and it’s frustrating coming up with Wikipedia or some archived web page that has nothing to do with my search. The Internet is too vast, too large to ignore, and the time has come to incorporate live, real-time data to the search engine ranks. Social media has really changed things. Hold on to your hats, it’s going to get very busy!