Looks like #40 was right after all.

I hate to crash everybody’s party, but there is a completely open and public database of over 9 million access points already, ye olde wigle.net. Wigle has been around for years and grows constantly. It’ll pass 16 million someday.

Also, to skadeet: don’t go around trying to correct people when you don’t know your subject. Do a google image search for netstumbler, then click on the second result: what are those? MAC addresses. Durhur. All access points have MAC addresses that are broadcast with the SSID, and as such can be linked to their manufacturer via the public list put out by the IEEE. This is how smart greyhats and blackhats can figure out what all the defaults (read default access) are for your wireless hardware and mess around with it. Also, as soon as you’re on any wireless network, Ethereal or some other sniffer will give you all the internal MAC addresses.

But no one’s yet mentioned state law.

My state’s laws are so draconian and went so overboard in response to “hacking” fears, that even if you don’t access the internet, what this company did could be construed as unauthorized access.

Some eager young local DA could decide to go after the company (and subpoena all its records).

So even disregarding federal issues - you could have multiple state misdemeanors (over dozens of states).

To be honest I would be proud to be a part of that. I mean, yeah, they know the MAC address i typed in my wireless router’s web page interface. I am not worried about that. That number means nothing, and will be changed next time I upgrade to the newest letter (B,G, PreN, N, etc, etc, etc).

To me it is cool to be part of some lowbrow positioning network. There are allot of nodes, thats for sure.

I have a GPS reciever I use thats portable. It was pretty cheap. I don’t really see how the Router/MAC address peer to peer network could be any better. The satalites are predictable in where they will be at ALL times. People move and take their routers with them.

And you know what else? I know it’s just a MAC address, but for once I wish people would just ask before they took whatever leaks my existance produces, this is including WiFi signals.

No one can use Skyhook to locate anyone that doesn’t want to be located. Anyone who does want to be located could use GPS to tell others where they are or could just manually type in their coordinates. Skyhook lets people who want to be located use the WiFi beacons to figure out where they are automatically and then make that information available to others.

Skyhook has created a database that ties your wireless gear to a geographic location. They did this in much the same way that someone could create a database tying the make, model, and license number of your car to a geographic location - they drove past your house and looked in your driveway. If you’ve got a wireless network, you are as good as putting up a sign in your front lawn saying “I’ve got a wireless network”. This should be neither surprising nor disturbing to anyone, any more than putting a satellite dish on top of your roof tells everyone that cares to look that you have a satellite dish.

But Skyhook doesn’t know anything about you specifically, nor anything about your network or computers… and they don’t care to. All they’re doing is the equivalent of noting that there’s a big pine tree in your yard (with exactly 15,672 needles), then telling people “Okay, if you’re standing near a big pine tree with exactly 15,672 needles, then you’re near 32 latitude, -90 longitude.”

Note that this helps other people find out where they are by orienting themselves using landmarks. The fact that the landmark happens to be at your house has nothing to do with it. It doesn’t help anyone find you. It doesn’t tie your online activities to your physical location. It doesn’t help anyone find out who you are. It doesn’t help anyone find out anything about you other than that someone at your location has a wireless access point. Note, however, that all of the above potential privacy concerns are already breached by other methods, and what Skyhook is doing neither makes it possible nor makes it easier.

The one interesting concern might be that someone with access to this database could tell, over time, that someone has moved from one place to another and taken their computer equipment with them. Just in case that might be too hard to figure out by looking at mailing addresses, vehicle registrations, property deeds, rental records, credit card use, or employment histories. Unlike with those other methods, though, whoever had access to the Skyhook database couldn’t tell anything else about who it was that moved except that they liked computers.

Sheesh.