Google's proposal for free WiFi access in San Francisco of course comes with another spam and privacy violation string attached. Verne Kopytoff writes in the San Francisco Chronicle that some people start to raise concerns about Google's policy to require log-in and build yet another giant database on online usage and location data. (Link found at Scripting News).
They want to store for 180 days where the users of their WiFi service have been and use that data for the purpose of serving location-related spam.
This kind of location data processing would be illegal under Article 9 of the 2002 data protection Directive if someone tried to pull it off in Europe.
Anonymous WiFi has the potential to help work around attempts to turn the Internet into one big surveillance machine. It also has the potential to help the enemies of freedom with that project.
It seems quite clear again which side Google is on in this fight.
Posted by Karl-Friedrich Lenz at April 10, 2006 11:22 PM