Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Let's Winnuke Google!
From: <neal.krawetz () mac hush com>
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:00:19 -0400
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 For more than a decade, privacy advocates have been concerned about the information collected by public search engines. All of their concerns were realized last year, when AOL released nearly a quarter million search requests performed on their search engine. Although the data did not have IP addresses or user names, it did contain AOL tracking numbers. These allow people to match queries to users, and in many cases, identify individuals. Although AOL quickly removed the data, their reaction was too late. The data has been mirrored and is widely available. It seems that Google has begun to respond to privacy concerns. One common belief is that Google has saved every query from every IP address ever made on their massive system. In the official Google blog, they mentioned taking some steps to protect individual's privacy. As reported by Network World magazine: Google will alter cookie information and change the last eight bits of the 32-bit IP addresses that identify computers logged onto the company's search engine. Wow... So they will reduce the identity from one IP address to a possible 256 IP addresses. <sarcasm>Gee, that sounds secure to me.</sarcasm> Considering that IP addresses can be used to identify a very specific region, and that all 256 possible addresses are likely in the same part of the same city, identifying individuals would actually be easier with Google's data than with AOL's data! (AOL only gave a unique tracking number, not the country or city information that can be derived from an IP address.) I doubt that Google is a private company that generates revenue off of their targeted advertising expertise, and there is absolutely no legitimate value in this information to anyone. While it is acceptable to ignorantly profile based on ethnicity and nationality, it is not acceptable to analyze marketing statistics based on geographic location. No good can come from this! I am a huge privacy advocate, and strongly encourage readers of this article to start using The Electronic Frontier Foundation's TOR for anonymity's sake, to prevent evil corporations like Google from generating revenue off their otherwise free service to you, the casual netizen. However, please do not use TOR to read my blog! I must know the location of each blog reader, since I am such a huge Internet privacy advocate! :-) ] Adding to the humor of this less-than-secure solution, Google's blog says: Our engineers are already busy working out the technical details, and we hope to implement this new data policy over the coming months (and within a year's time). I think we should help Google solve this problem. Which do you think is more secure? * 192.168.15.x * 192.168.15.xx * 192.168.15.xxx * 192.168.15.xxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * 192.168.15.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or, perhaps: * 192.168.15.abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ? Send your fecal excretions to Privacy Matters, c/o Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California, 94043, USA. And remember, "Do No Evil" is not the same as "Don't Act Stupid", and certainly not the same as "Don't Fuck Fat Chicks". - - ^d0c_n34l^ [HFG/gH/ILF/ACiD/MoD/TaMU] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Note: This signature can be verified at https://www.hushtools.com/verify Version: Hush 2.5 wpwEAQECAAYFAkYeLPoACgkQDpFP8dW5K4awwQP/c5ILaIBKHPwwneiL/tk+YUYTQWUI rRhpqExWxGZnfYwBG8eZRoKgIZSr6f+KaiFaT5cGFJ57PfXq2o3yqm0c5af5Z8K5Ch/w GfGUjAmyhq23eoI9BjyKGPlXsAgu57wBhy+kkZdpjLov9EHl/FeOQ2X3kIOtsqKJ7spI PL1r3Ts= =0UgV -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Click for free estimate on vinyl siding, 200% stronger & lower cost http://tagline.hushmail.com/fc/CAaCXv1SJEHSwqHohStIXwDGx75NNAPg/ _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Current thread:
- Let's Winnuke Google! neal.krawetz (Apr 12)
- Re: Let's Winnuke Google! J. Oquendo (Apr 12)
- Re: Let's Winnuke Google! James Matthews (Apr 12)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Let's Winnuke Google! jt5944-27a (Apr 12)
- Re: Let's Winnuke Google! J. Oquendo (Apr 12)