Nomination for the Australian Privacy Foundation ‘Big Brother Awards’ 2011
BBA2011 FINALIST

Criteria for a BBA2011 Award
The purpose of these Awards is to publicise privacy-abusive behaviour.  A responsible approach is adopted.  
As appropriate for the particular Award Category the nominee should be a public or private sector individual or organization, a government program or initiative, or a private sector business activity:
•	in or associated with Australia
•	responsible for a truly outstanding abuse (or defence) of privacy.
For a nominee to be considered, they need to be identified, their acts or behaviours that warrant an Award need to be briefly described, and some evidence needs to be provided, preferably both some originating with the nominee itself, and some from other sources such as the media. The deed for which they are nominated should have at least partially been put into practice – they lose points for just planning or announcing something!  Further details about BBA2010-11 are available at http://www.privacy.org.au/bba/.

A.   Name of Nominee

StreetView: Wi-Fi - Google

B.   Award Category: Privacy Abuser Categories for an “Orwell” Award -

Most Invasive Technology – for a technology that is particularly privacy invasive.

C.   Description
Award is for using a privacy invasive technology that randomly and deliberately captured data without permission and without adopting appropriate management, technical and development processes and procedures to prevent error and safeguard privacy.

While Streetview always was a controversial product, the application Google used and their failure to prevent the collection of WiFi data (while collecting images for Streetview) takes the matter to a new level. Therefore, while it may seem a bit repetitive to again nominate Google Streetview for a BBA2011 Award, their capture of Wi-Fi meta-data and personal information in Australia makes it impossible not to do so.
 
Google admitted in May that it had collected "payload data" including "in some instances entire emails and URLs were captured, as well as passwords". This information included meta-data (eg the name and MAC address of some networks) and personal data (eg email content and web browsing history from some networks).

Until May 6 2010 Google used an “application that was configurable through the use of command line arguments that make it possible to specify, at the time the program is run, what types of wireless frames to record. Based on our review of the provided configuration files and shell scripts used to launch gslite prior to May 6, 2010, the gstumbler application used the default configurations described above, which is to say that all wireless frame data was recorded except for the bodies of 802.11 data frames from encrypted networks.” (see Section D: Source Code Analysis of gstumbler  Prepared for Google and Perkins Coie by STROZ FRIEDBERG June 3, 2010 PDF document entitled “GoodleWifi-ACMA-PC-100528 downloaded 2 November 2010) 

The deliberate use of this technology is inconceivably privacy invasive particularly when used by a company like Google that already collects, stores and uses such massive amounts of personal data from people who use its other services. 

D.   Evidence of the Actions and References
Source Code Analysis of gstumbler  Prepared for Google and Perkins Coie by STROZ FRIEDBERG June 3, 2010 PDF document entitled “GoodleWifi-ACMA-PC-100528 downloaded 2 November, 2010. This document states:
 “A. Executive Summary
4. The executable program, gslite [used by Google], works in conjunction with an open source network and packet sniffing program called Kismet, which detects and captures wireless network traffic. The program facilitates the mapping of wireless networks. It does so by parsing and storing to a hard drive identifying information about these wireless networks – including but not limited to their component devices’ numeric addresses, known as MAC addresses, and the wireless network routers’ manufacturer-given or user-given names, known as “service set identifiers,” or “SSIDs.” The “parsing” involves separating these identifiers into discrete fields. Gslite then associates these identifiers with GPS information that the program obtains from a GPS unit operating in the Google Street View vehicle. Gslite captures and stores to a hard drive the header information for both encrypted and unencrypted wireless networks.”
5. While gslite parses the header information from all wireless networks, it does not attempt to parse the body of any wireless data packets. The body of wireless data packets is where user created content, such as e-mails or file transfers, or evidence of user activity, such as Internet browsing, may be found. While running in memory, gslite permanently drops the bodies of all data traffic transmitted over encrypted wireless networks. The gslite program does write to a hard drive the bodies of wireless data packets from unencrypted networks. However, it does not attempt to analyze or parse that data.”
22. As set forth above, the gslite source code includes logic that examines wireless frames’ type and encryption status, and determines whether to discard them in whole or in part. The default behavior of gslite is to record all wireless frame data, with the exception of the bodies of encrypted 802.11 data frames. The gstumbler application is configurable through the use of command line arguments that make it possible to specify, at the time the program is run, what types of wireless frames to record. Based on our review of the provided configuration files and shell scripts used to launch gslite, prior to May 6, 2010, the gstumbler application used the default configurations described above, which is to say that all wireless frame data was recorded except for the bodies of 802.11 data frames from encrypted networks.
25. The gslite program parses some, though not all, information from 802.11 wireless frames read in from a source of wireless frames. It simultaneously receives geolocation coordinates from a GPS system and then associates each wireless frame with the time and approximate location in which it was received. The gslite program works in concert with a second program, Kismet, which must run simultaneously. Kismet controls one or more wireless cards on a Google vehicle. 
2 It is our understanding that on May 6, 2010, in response to regulatory attention, the gstumbler shell script was revised to disable all Data frame capture. We have inspected that revised shell script and have confirmed that revision. and provides gslite with the stream of detected wireless frames.
V. Conclusion
63. Gslite is an executable program that captures, parses, and writes to disk 802.11 wireless frame data. In particular, it parses all frame header data and associates it with its GPS coordinates for easy storage and use in mapping network locations. The program does not analyze or parse the body of Data frames, which contain user content. The data in the data frame body passes through memory and is written to disk in unparsed format if the frame is sent over an unencrypted wireless network, and is discarded if the frame is sent over an encrypted
network.”

E.  Why the Nominee Deserves the Award
Scope
It is not possible to ascertain exactly how many people have been affected by the collection of WiFi data. However, there is no doubt that a large number of Australians and people in many other countries have been affected.

Seriousness
The use of an application that may capture, parse and store data sent over an unencrypted wireless network is totally irresponsible. This is perhaps the most serious privacy violation Australia has witnessed. It shows Google’s internal processes are  totally inadequate to protect privacy. Google cannot claim Streetview technology is capturing only what can be ‘seen’ from the street. 

Australian consumers have privacy rights under both the Privacy Act 1988 and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. The products used by Google to capture Wi-Fi data exacerbated the privacy invasive nature of Streetview.  No permission to capture this or any other data was obtained. Streetview continues to push the boundaries of privacy invasion. 

F. Other Comments (including Nominee Response)

This nomination form was emailed to the nominee on 18 March for comment by 8 April 2011. No response was received by the Coordinator of BBA2011 by 9 April 2011.