The Google guy who snooped for wireless data was a 'god' among engineers

That "rogue engineer" who collected personal information over wireless networks via Google's Street View cars has been identified in today's New York Times as Marius Milner, the creator of wireless detection software NetStumblr. Milner, who had previously only been identified as Engineer Doe in the controversy, collected masses of data, including email addresses, passwords and search history, while gathering information about wireless networks to improve location based searches. He even went around bragging about it to his Google colleagues, which makes sense given he was a rockstar in the community of technologists working with wireless. As one colleague describes on Milner's LinkedIn. "Marius and I worked together in regards to his Netstumbler Software but due to NDA's, I'm not allowed to speak about what I did," writes John K. "He has revolutionized the wireless community with his software and allowed many companies to use his software to their advantage to make sure they have a secure wireless network. He is a GOD in the wireless community." Google, of course, knew of his prestige when they selected him for the job, making this data collection "side project" seem all the more suspicious.