[PLUG-TALK] Personal Telco, Google spying

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Fri Jun 10 15:49:30 UTC 2016


I run a Personal Telco wifi public access point out of
my home, perhaps a dozen unique users per week.  That
consumes some bandwidth, but also hides my own tunnel-
encrypted use of the WAP.  When Google looks at the
usage associated with my FIOS link IP address, or
hoovers up my wifi traffic as they drive by in a
Street Map car, their "model of me" is muddled.  

They use that model for commercial advantage - the
more they know about me, the better they can tailor
ads and adjust prices to maximize the profits for
their paying commercial customers.

The downside of an inaccurate model of me is that I
must wade through a lot of distracting crap targeted
at my wifi guests.  While that reminds me that I am
being watched, it can be slow and frustrating.

Has anyone else running a PTP or other open wireless node
noticed this effect?  Or am I just imagining monsters?

And have I just screwed the pooch and attracted a lot
of robotic google attention by sending this to dozens
of gmail accounts on this list?

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com



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