Hasta La Gadget!

If you’ve heard about Google’s latest fine at the hands of privacy seekers across the USA, you know good and well that their Street View cars are roaming around your neighborhood with their sensors on. But what are we doing to prepare for these traveling information collectors? Apparently not a whole lot, as part of the penalty being leveraged against Google is a requirement that they inform the public how to turn on the security on their own personal wifi hubs.

The privacy case at hand has 38 states across the USA and the District of Columbia saying Google’s “Wifi-poaching” Street View cars – which we’ve heard from many times before – are going out of their way NOT to keep to themselves. As these cars roam through your neighborhood, they take photos that are used for Google’s Street View portion of Google Maps – accessible by anyone with an internet connection. The part that regulators are not happy about has to do with Google also seeking open wifi networks to better pinpoint the location of their vehicles as they take said photos.

But as the settlement against Google here in the USA shines down a $7 million dollar fine against the big G, so too did the public raise their voices in freak-out mode to Google, telling them to “stop all the downloadin”.

Only that didn’t happen. There was no massive public outcry, nor was there a large call for citizens across the USA – or anywhere else, for that matter – to take better care to secure their own wireless network. That’s why this week’s directive has Google creating a consumer campaign to educate everyday users on how they might secure themselves against… well… Google.

Sound like a life-changing experience for you? Will a set of Google Public Service Announcements change the way you secure your home internet network? Or is this just an exercise in absurdity?

Have a peek at the timeline below to follow this Street View story back several months (and years) and see how we’re all handling this modern not-quite-so-private world of ours.

Google $7m Street View fine shows how little we care about privacy is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

For most people, their worst fear is having their private information, like their search history or e-mails, leaked out to the public. While their information wasn’t leaked publicly, many people found that their greatest fear almost became a reality when Google Street View cars accidentally came into possession of their passwords, adult-rated web site visits, and e-mails by activating their wireless collection system.

Google is said to be nearing a $7 million settlement in order to resolve the issue and the investigations surrounding it. Over 30 State Attorney Generals initiated investigations over the issue. The $7 million settlement would be split across those states. A Google’s spokesperson, Nadia Blagojevic, stated,

“We work hard to get privacy right at Google. But in this case we didn’t, which is why we quickly tightened up our systems to address the issue.”

This issue has affected many countries, including France, Norway, Belgium, Finland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and Australia, and Ireland. The data was collected from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. Alongside the $7 million payment Google may have to pay, the FCC had also imposed a $25,000 fine on the company regarding the Street View privacy breaches, a fine that only amounted to .001 percent of company’s revenue for a single day.

Google’s Street View cars are only supposed to collect images to be used for Google Maps, but due to an engineering issue, the cars collected a lot more information. Google intended to delete all of the private data in 2010, but some of the information still lingered in its system. Various privacy agencies all over the world began reviewing Google’s data in order to find out the appropriate fine the search-engine juggernaut would have to pay. Now Google has to wait to see if the agencies accept its $7 million settlement. We’ll keep you posted.

[via Washington Post]

Google nears settlement over Street View privacy breach is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple‘s iPhone and iPad reign supremacy above the clouds when it comes to in-flight internet access according to a new infographic being detailed today. The popular in-flight WiFi company Gogo has just released some detailed information regarding what devices are most preferred, at least while in the air. With smartphones and tablets taking in nearly 67% of all devices read on for the full breakdown.

The last time you were on a flight how many Android tablets did you see compared to the iPad or iPad mini? Whether you’re a fan or not Apple still reigns supremacy in this regard. According to the number of devices connecting to Gogo’s services, the iPad is the device of choice above all others for in-flight entertainment.

Overall tablets take up 35% of all connected devices with laptops coming in at 33%. Then smartphones come in a very close 3rd and will soon pass laptops, currently sitting at 32% of all in-flight connected devices. Then the folks from Gogo break this down even further to reveal how far ahead in the sky Apple is over the competition.

In 2013 out of all mobile devices being used to connect through Gogo, 84% are running Apple’s iOS while only a small 16% are being powered by Google’s Android OS. If you single it down to smartphones the iPhone holds 73% of all users, while Android sits around 26%. Oh, and we can’t forget about BlackBerry and Windows Phone. The two combined only make up around 1% and aren’t even in the infographic. While this shows great numbers for Apple, in 2011 Android was only being used in 3.2% so they are certainly on the rise.

So when you’re 36,000 feet in the air what are you doing? Aside from checking destination weather or entertainment options, Gogo states most are just doing general web browsing. Mobile has certainly taken over the traditional laptop when it comes to travel WiFi needs, and Apple’s iOS is at the top of that list.

[via Gogo]

Apple dominates the sky according to WiFi provider Gogo is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Just a little over two months since the WiFi Alliance and the Wireless Gigabit Alliance made their engagement plans known, the two groups are finally in marital bliss. They’ve long worked together on developing and building the 60GHz wireless standard, but decided it was best to make the partnership official in order to get the most out of their collaboration. Long-term plans include expanding WiGig’s capabilities and implementing a baseline interoperability certification program by early 2014. This united effort could point to quite a growth spurt; ABI Research forecasts that there’ll be annual shipments of 1.8 billion devices with both WiFi and WiGig support by 2016. Though there are no new product announcements at the moment, it looks like the newly unified WiFi Alliance will have plenty to work on over the coming years.

Filed under: Wireless

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Source: WiFi Alliance

Patriot has just announced a new addition to its collection of storage offerings called the AERO. As the name suggests, the new device is of the wireless variety, which Patriot hopes will garner favor with owners of memory-light tablets and smartphones. To reinforce this ambition, there is of course a companion app — Patriot Connect — for Android and iOS that turns the device into a mobile media hub. With hooks for 3rd party media players, it hopes to overcome any format barriers, and there’s also an internet pass through feature to let multiple users hit the web on the same IP. There are two capacities on offer — 500GB and 1TB — both with WiFi b / g / n, capacity for five connected devices, USB 3.0 and up to six hours of life on the rechargeable battery. The larger of the two will cost $199, dropping to $159 if you don’t need so much storage. Both ship in early April.

Filed under: Storage

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