AOL has been compiling an immense database of wireless access points by driving down people’s streets and recording the locations of all wireless signals. Does this bother anyone?
About:
I am a Christian living in South Seattle. I recently graduated from Temple University in Tokyo, Japan. At present, I am looking for employment as a financial analyst.
Wait a minute….
That does bother me… Bothers me a lot…
A compilation of public signals is one thing but on the private level… It’s just not right.
If people don’t take the time to secure/hide their routers from general sniffing that’s their problem. You cannot see my router from the street so I really don’t care. I can see 5 unprotected routers from my basement that I periodically connect to.
Neemund’s got a point. If you leave your front door wide open, you can’t complain that someone’s on the street is looking in.
BTW, I really love your new site. It’s very easy to use and very cool too!
Doesn’t bother me at all. If your sprinklers water the street, you don’t scream is if someone puts potted plants to be watered.
Only if they sell that list to people who would abuse it. Or if they abuse it. But being bothered really isn’t enough to make a strong, logical case. If people are so worried about their wireless signals being abused (I’ve never understood why, though, it’s not like it really matters unless illegal activity is being done, and then it’s only a philosophical argument), then they should make them private.
If I were to make a fuss over AOL checking up on free wireless signals in neighborhoods, I would first have to make a fuss over internet companies selling private information to businesses and advertising corporations. That is an industry which is high-rolling right now, and is terribly uncouth and even prosecutable, but because of the shadowy nature of it, is almost unreachable.