It was in a sense accidental, because they used an existing open source 
technology to capture wifi packets (Kismet, and something called gslite along with it).<br>
<br>Background: Google wants to build an alternate to GPS navigation in the cities, so any Wifi enabled device will be able to listen to what access points are out there and then query Google's database online and deduce its exact location. For this, they need the MAC address, and the signal strength.<br>
<br>Here is their patent for it<br><a href="http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10005017/google-trying-to-deduce-wireless-location-info-bypass-carriers/">http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10005017/google-trying-to-deduce-wireless-location-info-bypass-carriers/</a><br>
<br>So, they recorded what the tool provided, not that they intentionally wanted to capture the other stuff. This happened to contain packets that had email fragments, HTTP, or other stuff that just happened to be on the air at the time, and unencrypted.<br>
<br>Where they went wrong is not filtering this data to only what they need (MAC address, signal strength) and/or discarding it quickly.<br><br>Here is a report by a consulting firm on that incident<br><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/wifi-data-collection-update.html">http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/wifi-data-collection-update.html</a><br>
<br>Specifically:<br><a href="http://www.google.com/googleblogs/pdfs/friedberg_sourcecode_analysis_060910.pdf">http://www.google.com/googleblogs/pdfs/friedberg_sourcecode_analysis_060910.pdf</a><br><br><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/06/19/1635200/Why-Googles-Wi-Fi-Payload-Collection-Was-Inadvertent">http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/06/19/1635200/Why-Googles-Wi-Fi-Payload-Collection-Was-Inadvertent</a><br>
<br>So, it is less sinister than what it sounds like. A flub, but not out of malice, rather oversight and poor processes.<br>-- <br>Khalid M. Baheyeldin<br><a href="http://2bits.com">2bits.com</a>, Inc.<br><a href="http://2bits.com">http://2bits.com</a><br>
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