Dangerous Google and Naked Users

Published in http://opinion.haiwainet.cn/
(China) on 21 September 2013
by Yimei Luan (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Tuo Huang. Edited by .

Edited By Rachel Smith

Google users seem to have stripped off their safety vests, naked and paranoid. New technologies, while providing people with all sorts of convenient experiences, may also very likely become a new form of bondage, watching over and hijacking your life.

Snowden’s disclosure of PRISM this July revealed Google’s cooperation with the U.S. government in sharing its users’ data, a scandal that has made the search engine giant a target of public debate. Once again, a foreign source’s recent tip-off on Google gaining access to Android global users’ Wi-Fi passwords is pushing Google into the spotlight. According to U.S. media, the world’s leading mobile phone operating system, Android, is able to back up its Wi-Fi users’ passwords. Once your device is connected to a Wi-Fi network, Google will get to know your login information. With this capability, Google provides users with a “convenient” password-restoring service and in the meantime collects all their password info through Android devices. In this way, you would open the door and donate your privacy without realizing it.

It’s not just that one-time stealing and disclosure of one’s Wi-Fi password is disconcerting; more importantly, your whereabouts and traveling schedule are also completely exposed. Google backs up the net list on your Wi-Fi device and each corresponding password, covering places far more than your home but also hotels, bookstores, libraries, cafes, offices and various other venues where you have stayed. It adds these data to its map of Wi-Fi access points to complete a depiction of your whereabouts and habitual traveling routes. With just a small mistake or instance of negligence, users’ individual privacy could be given away and exploited all at once. For Android cellphone users around the world, it’s much more than just a bit disconcerting!

One of the century’s greatest IT giants, Google has been fearlessly pushing forward in developing new technologies. Such “killer” apps as Google Maps and Google Glass are greatly influencing people’s social life. “Don’t be evil” was once a popular slogan. Its meanings can be interpreted in two ways: First, Google has the potential to make threats. Second, Google should take on more social responsibilities. Unfortunately, Google is becoming a threat, as its user penetration reaches each corner of the world. It is not an exaggeration to say it has become a threat to the whole society. On the one hand, it is offering the best user experience; on the other, it is ripping you off with every tiny part of your privacy.

Using images from Google Maps, Peter Singer and Jeffrey Lin, two American researchers, recently wrote an analysis of China’s covert project of Liaoning, the country’s first homemade aircraft carrier. Based on nothing but photos pulled from blogs and the Internet, the report made a startling “check-up” on the ship, uncovering all kinds of its potential capabilities.

“The grainy photos that they were getting from those spy satellites were nothing compared to what you can get from Google Earth,” says Singer. The images they analyzed mostly came from different national defense forums. Some had been provided by military experts, retired vets and plain enthusiasts, others from official broadcasts or citizen journalists.

In the face of science and technologies, humans are both strong and weak. New technologies grow only in one direction — forward, yet the truth of history teaches us that in welcoming a form of convenience, people also bring to themselves a kind of bondage. More often than not, new media create alienating effects. Materialistic and spiritual production grow against humans, turning into a force of alienation.


摘要:“裸露”的用户在“危险”的谷歌面前似乎毫无安全感。某些新技术在为人们提供各类便捷体验的同时很可能成为人类新的束缚力量:监视进而“劫持”你的人生。

今年7月,斯诺登的“棱镜门”爆出谷歌与美国政府合作提供用户信息,一度把它推到了风口浪尖,而日前外媒一条关于“谷歌掌握全球安卓用户Wifi密码”的爆料又将其再次推到了舞台的中央。

据美国媒体报道,世界头号手机操作系统安卓系统拥有对WiFi密码进行备份的功能,只要你的设备连接了某个WiFi,谷歌就可获知这个WiFi的登录密码。利用此种功能,谷歌通过向用户提供数据备份的“便利”服务,保存了所有安卓设备中输入过的WiFi密码。让你在不知情的情况下,打开自己的“房门”,将个人隐私“贡献”出去。

其实令人不安的不仅仅是一次WiFi密码的被窃取与被泄露,更重要的是你的行动轨迹与行动时间表也将被一览无余。谷歌保存了你设备上的WiFi网络列表与对应密码,这不仅仅局限于你自己的家,还包括你到过的酒店、商店、图书馆、咖啡馆、办公室和其他各种各样的地方。谷歌将这些信息加入到他们创建的“WiFi接入点地图”,你的路径信息、使用习惯等行动路线图就这样被描述出来。如果稍有不慎造成个人隐私被集中泄露、利用……这对于遍布世界各地的安卓手机用户而言,不安的何止是一点点!

作为本世纪最伟大的IT公司之一,谷歌对新技术的追逐一向勇往直前,谷歌地图、谷歌眼镜这些“杀手级”应用的相继出笼,极大地影响了当下的社会生活。

曾经有句著名的话叫“谷歌不作恶”,它显现出两个意思:一是谷歌有潜在的威胁他人的能力;二是谷歌应担负起更多的社会责任。

然而,随着谷歌应用深入到全球的各个角落,它开始变得危险起来。可以说“危险”的谷歌正威胁着全社会。它一边为你提供最佳的用户体验,一边掠走关于你隐私的方方面面。

最近,美国研究者辛格与杰弗里利用从谷歌地图上获取的图片,完成了一篇关于中国秘密工程---首艘国产航母辽宁舰的分析报告。报告完全依据网络及博客中的图片,对辽宁舰做了令人吃惊的“体检”,“揭示”其各种潜能。

辛格说:“间谍卫星拍摄的粒状图片与从谷歌地图上获取的图片不可同日而语。”他们基于分析的图片大多来自各类国防论坛,由军事专家、退伍军人及军事爱好者所提供,还有一些官方媒体与自媒体作者发布的照片。

在科技面前,人类既勇猛又无力。新技术的指向是唯一的,那就是向前。而历史的真相告诉我们,人们往往在获得一种便利的同时,也被附加了另一种束缚。新媒体在行进过程中常常会伴生着“异化”,物质生产与精神生产演变为人的对立面,成为异己力量。

从这一点来看,“裸露”的用户在“危险”的谷歌面前似乎毫无安全感。某些新技术在为人们提供各类便捷体验的同时很可能成为人类新的束缚力量:监视进而“劫持”你的人生。

(栾轶玫,中央电台网络发展部主任,海外网专栏作者)

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