[IP] Microsoft wants to map the world, one WiFi node at a time [priv]
Begin forwarded message:
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@xxxxxxxx>
Date: August 2, 2005 12:06:50 PM EDT
To: politech@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Politech] Microsoft wants to map the world, one WiFi node
at a time [priv]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Microsoft turning the Internet into a spy network
Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 08:08:41 -0400
From: Richard M. Smith <rms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: 'Declan McCullagh' <declan@xxxxxxxx>
I outlined a system like this in 2003:
The Internet as the Ultimate Surveillance Network
http://www.computerbytesman.com/privacy/usenix2003/index.htm
Other folks have been working on similar WiFi location systems since
2000:
http://engadget.com/entry/3981190443365299/
Of course, one can also get in trouble for using someone else's WiFi AP:
Wireless hijacking under scrutiny
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4721723.stm
Richard
--------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8702329
Microsoft tracks WiFi for new mapping system
Move is part of a plan to create alternative to GPS satellite system
By Richard Waters
Updated: 2:33 p.m. ET July 25, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO - Is someone listening in to the signal from your wireless
computer network, photographing your house or putting a detailed map
of your
neighborhood online for anyone to see?
In a new initiative, Microsoft has dispatched cars to trawl many city
and
suburban streets across the U.S. to locate the signals sent out by
millions
of short-range home and office wireless (or WiFi) networks. (MSNBC is a
Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)
The unusual move, now being repeated in the U.K. and some other
countries,
is part of a plan to create a ground-based location system as an
alternative
to the GPS satellite system. This echoes an effort by A9, a search
engine
owned by Amazon.com, the online retailer, to use trucks with cameras
mounted
on the roof to photograph millions of store fronts in the U.S..
Microsoft says it has a database containing the whereabouts of
"millions" of
WiFi networks, while A9's Web site gives access to 26m pictures from
20 US
cities.
Microsoft has also used low-flying aircraft to catch big urban
centers on
film, while the software company and Google, the search company, are
racing
to make widely available the most detailed satellite images of every
corner
of the earth's surface.
These and other initiatives are now being extended internationally,
as the
Internet companies vie to attract users.
Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a
U.S. pressure group, said, taken together, some of the powerful new
mapping
and tracking tools on the Internet could represent a threat to
privacy. The
Internet companies say their satellite and aerial photos many of
which are
already available publicly, even if not over the Internet do not
provide a
high enough level of detail to identify individuals or car license
plates.
Microsoft said it had collected only the unique identifier, known as
a MAC
address which each WiFi network broadcasts. This could not be traced
to an
address or an individual user.
Microsoft said that, by recording the position of every MAC address on a
giant map, it had created a positioning system that would make it
possible
for anyone with a WiFi-enabled laptop computer to identify their
location to
within 30.5 meters.
C The Financial Times Ltd 2005. "FT" and "Financial Times" are
trademarks of
the Financial Times.
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