Google Collected Wifi Data for Geo-location Purposes
In the past days there have been a lot of discussions about the public admission of collecting Wifi data from Google. This has been labeled as “mistake” but do not you wonder why Google was collecting those Wifi data in the first place? They were collecting MAC addresses and network SSIDs for geo-location purposes.
Since wireless networks are pretty popular, and the combination MAC/SSID is unique, associating those with the car’s GPS coordinates allowed Google to create a pretty detailed map. This map could then be used to figure out your coordinates given the MAC/SSIDs around you. The technology is generally called Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS).
A possible use of that is the Google Maps application. If the device does not have a GPS, it uses GSM cells triangulation (cells coordinates have probably be obtained in a similar fashion) to figure out the location. While it generally works, it cannot be very accurate and often has a 2 miles range approximation. However, if some wireless networks are detected in the surroundings, they can be used to produce a much better estimation of the location.
These data are probably also sold/used by the Automatic Geo-Tagging feature of the Eye-Fi memory card. Not surprisingly, those cards are sold in promotion with Google Picasa.
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