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Comment by yanw | Hacker News Reader

If the solution is not ideal it's only because the problem is imaginary.

Why are we pretending that logging locations of public WiFi hotspots is even an issue?

The outrage isn't about about public hotspots. It also logs your home SSID, even if the network is encrypted. That's what people are mad about - having their home routers on a Google map.

I don't get it - when I click on available wireless networks I see all of my neighbors SSID names, should I not read them? These are not private, the default setting of a router is actually to broadcast this name.

So, perhaps we should advocate router manufacturers to change the default SSID broadcast?

Yes and anyone can see my license plate # as I drive by. That doesn't mean I'd be comfortable having my car tracked.

Unfortunately, your car is already being tracked. A lot parking garages, and toll roads are doing exactly this.

Hardly comparable, since you can know the name of the person from the license plate, but there's no SSID -> Owner's Name database.

A better comparison is your house address and number: it's out there for everyone to see and it gives them much, much more information than the SSID ever could.

Having a semi-public database could be a bad idea. Depending on how often the database is updated (and how it is queried) you could track where your new neighbours have moved from and where the old one went.

If someone is being stalked they'll disconnect their phone, but who thinks to change their router SSID?

> If someone is being stalked they'll disconnect their phone, but who thinks to change their router SSID?

No one, given that half of neighborhood networks are probably called 'Linksys', 'TP_Link', or something like that.

Their home router SSID isn't on a map. Look, my home router's SSID is ListerNet. I'm in London, UK somewhere. Where am I?

Hm, is that you up in Barnet?

No.

As a matter of interest, what were you basing that on?

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