Don't forget to add `_optout` to prevent Windows hoovering it up as well. E.g, `mywifiname_optout_nomap`
Apparently it's not, and `_optout` for Windows is real. FML.
Source: https://superuser.com/questions/1005235/wi-fi-opt-out-micros...
Good thing that you don't have to have two specific suffixes at the same time!
And that if my WiFi shouldn’t be part of Google’s (and Microsoft as well) data collection I need to suffix my SSID with _optout_nomap??
This has to be a joke. Any docs/refs/links?
Moreover, there are companies that operate large numbers of APs across a broad geographic region, and they may have a centralized system for managing those APs -- which means that they are collecting information about all nearby wifi stations (including client devices) across a broad region in a single place. Do you have a problem with that practice or view that as a violation of privacy?
Radio is not private (except, possibly, cellular services, which may be treated as phone services with legal restrictions on wiretapping), especially when you are talking about unlicensed operation.
What Google is doing is a cool hack and might be fully legit, but it's foolish to claim there's no potential privacy issues in it.
Broadcasting your SSID from a fixed station means forfeiting privacy rights over the SSID. You have plenty of alternatives to the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands if you are concerned -- 60Ghz equipment is easy to buy and has many advantages, and wired connections are another option. I have zero sympathy for people who are worried about the privacy of their radio transmissions, especially transmissions on the unlicensed bands. Radio by its nature is not private.
As for the monetization issue, is that really the argument here? You have no problem with open-source location databases like OpenWLANMap, which is literally the same thing as Google's database but without any profit motive? That seems pretty weak. Heaven forbid someone should make money doing something that is otherwise unobjectionable...
If people want to partake, fine. But don't make it a burden for me to opt out. AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, most people are not tech people and will not even know of this and many are not technically savvy to know how to change their SSID if they even know where to find out how to opt out. Many WAPs around me still have their default ssid from the box from their ISP provided device and probably only WAP because thats that the cable guy had them do when he plugged the box in.
Google should be given credit for offerring an opt-out -- they had zero obligation to do so and there is zero expectation of privacy in this case (it is no different from collecting a database of street addresses -- anyone can drive down a street and write down all the house addresses, and nobody has a right to object to that).
People should have a reasonable expectation of privacy when their SSID isn’t deductible past their private land. It’s spying cellphones not street vehicles that’s collecting most of this data. And for what benefit?
If you don't want them to have data for something which is only detectible on your own land, just turn off Google's location services. Of course, the odds are very high that it's not only detectible on your own land.
That’s the problem it isn’t something most people are aware of let alone have much of a choice about. This is Google deciding it’s probably not illegal to spy on people in their own homes.
Sure, their probably not actually listening to conversation, but consider if they where would you consider they where spying if this was the level of consent given?
> If Location Services is on, your iPhone will periodically send the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers (where supported by a device) in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple, to be used for augmenting this crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower locations.
On the plus side, world-wide roaming would be much closer after that.