Google's Street View 'snoops' on Congress members

BBC News ^ | Friday, 9 July 2010 | Maggie Shiels

[Mojave]

Google's popular Street View project may have collected personal information of members of Congress, including some involved in national security issues.

The claim was made by leading advocacy group, Consumer Watchdog which wants Congress to hold hearings into what data Google's Street View possesses.

[Mojave]

Congress critters are special.

[skr]

The images are usually a few years old. Is that really a problem for public servants?

[Drill Thrawl]

And they are taken in public areas by clearly visible cameras and vehicle.

I smell an ulterior motive.

[LibertyRocks]

It’s not the pictures... It’s the Computer Wi-Fi network numbers that they recorded. They say they were only unsecured networks, but I wouldn’t count on that completely, IMHO. They said it was an accident, but how could you not know? After all — they are GOOGLE for gosh sakes...

[The Sons of Liberty]

Google’s actions were perfectly OK with congress as long it was the peasants who were the object of the actions. Now that congress has found out that they’re included too, hearings will be held!

[Drill Thrawl]

Ooops. Fooled by a poor headline (all too frequent lately). It’s not Street view it’s Google’s Wi-Spy that is at issue.

[LibertyRocks]

I don’t think it’s the pictures, so much as it is the WI-FI Network location numbers that Google recorded. That could pose a vulnerability when it comes to national security issues. Google could be bribed for that information, or people could attempt to gain access to it.

After all, we did just bust Chapman, the Femme Fatale and her comrades. It’s not like other countries, or terrorist groups wouldn’t try to gain access to communications to “listen in”.

[rwfromkansas]

What can one do with a wi-fi network number? Anybody can go around with a wi-fi finder. It doesn’t do anything bad by itself. It’s the user intent and hacking ability etc.

[Mojave]

“It found that Congresswoman Jane Harman, who heads the intelligence sub committee for the House’s Homeland Security Committee, has an open home network that could have leaked out vital information that could have been picked up by Street View vehicles.”

No criticism of Harman by Consumer Watchdog, of course.

[Ed Condon]

Our best and brightest in D.C. don’t know how to secure their networks.

Guess it’s time for some new “best and brightest.”

[LibertyRocks]

Only as far as it has been recorded. Like having all the private telephone numbers of key personnel of the government where they discuss situations that are truly National Security Issues. The information could be valuable to the country’s true enemies... And could possibly put troops at risk as well.

All JMHO. Maybe I’m stuck back in the Cold War or something - but, we did just arrest those Russian “Agents”. That fact did make me consider that angle of the case with Google.

I do assume that those networks would have adequate safeguards. But, Google also said that these were “unsecured”. So, if that’s the case then there is much less a worry. If there was a worry then that is the Congresspeople’s own fault for not having a secured network. Just another level of incompetence in that case.

[skr]

Thank you for the clarification. I’m guilty of only reading the first part.

[LibertyRocks]

I do think it’s the Congresspeople’s own fault for having unsecured networks - but also the security agency that is in charge of these people, IMHO. I don’t know if it’s the Secret Service, or the Pentagon, or what agency. They would need to check these things if they are going to be thorough, IMHO.

[HereInTheHeartland]

I can't believe this hasn't been done as a movie script or a TV episode of series like Monk.

The Google images would have some incriminating evidence in them...

[LibertyRocks]

You’re welcome, but just so you know...
I’m guilty of only reading the first part, too! LOL

I just remembered right away what data they had collected and it dawned on me, but I didn’t realize that they had indeed found unsecured networks. That is the problem to fix here, IMHO.

[Cyber Liberty]

I’m more interested with what they did with the WiFi data packets they also intercepted with their little trucks.

[Buckeye McFrog]

the real story I take away here is that we have Members of Congress who are STUPID enough to have unsecured WiFi at home

[a fool in paradise]

Google's popular Street View project may have collected personal information of members of Congress, including some involved in national security issues.

Is this like the time that the NY Times published photos of VP Cheney's driveway and pointed out where the security cameras to the property were located?

Hmm?

Weekends With the President's Men (June 30, 2006 NY Times)

There is a lens in the birdhouse at the driveway of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's home at St. Michaels, Md.

JUST an hour and a half from Washington, across the 4.3-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge, or less than 30 minutes in a government-issue Chinook helicopter, is the Eastern Shore of Maryland and the primly groomed waterside village of St. Michaels...

One is Vice President Dick Cheney, 65, who paid $2.67 million last September for a house that resembles a wide, squat Mount Vernon. Another is his old friend Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, 73, who in 2003 paid $1.5 million for a brick Georgian that was last a bed-and-breakfast. Among other recognizable owners in the area are Tony Snow, President Bush's new press secretary; Joe Trippi, Howard Dean's presidential campaign manager in 2004; Nicholas Brady, President George H. W. Bush's treasury secretary; and John S. D. Eisenhower, a writer and historian and the son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower...

Today, where the drive begins, Mount Misery seems a congenial place, with a white mailbox with newspaper delivery sleeves attached, a big American flag fluttering from a post by a split-rail fence and a tall, one-hole birdhouse of the sort made for bluebirds — although the lens in the hole suggests another function...

[Lady Jag]

Security breaches by Google.

[Disambiguator]

Obama is giving the laser-eye to the guy across from him. Right in his mouth!