Smartphone-monitoring bins in London track places of work, past behavior

64 点作者 alt_将近 12 年前

10 条评论

d5ve将近 12 年前

I read somewhere recently about companies buying up this MAC address data from individual shops and using it as an additional profiling source. If you walk into a store and end up purchasing something, then your MAC would be linked to any payment details. At which point, the profiling company would know who you are, and where you go.I started writing a small proof-of-concept android app to randomise the WIFI MAC to make it more difficult to track a phone and its owner. The android API doesn't support changing the MAC, so it requires a rooted phone.Mostly working code can be found at: <a href="https://github.com/d5ve/RandoMAC" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/d5ve/RandoMAC</a>It's made tricky by being unable to change the MAC whilst the WIFI is enabled, and re-enabling the WIFI resets the MAC back to the hardware one. Also by my total inexperience with android apps and java.

anigbrowl将近 12 年前

This is OK because it's for business so yay freedom....admittedly I'm having a hard time seeing how this squares with EU data protection laws but I'm sure the UK will pursue an opt-out in the name of free markets. I'm not kidding, sadly.Also, that video...WTF.

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ColinWright将近 12 年前

There is further discussion over here:<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6194832" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6194832</a> (wired.co.uk)In addition, here are some other sources for the same story:<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6181893" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6181893</a> (qz.com)<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6183485" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6183485</a> (qz.com)<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6184423" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6184423</a> (theatlanticcities.com)<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6187750" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6187750</a> (vice.com)

Bjoern将近 12 年前

Its quite fascinating that many are not aware of how much data their phones are revealing. In this regard this is a rather interesting and technical presentation on how to exploit such data and going a step further."Terrorism, Tracking, Privacy And Human Interactions. Daniel Cuthbert and Glenn Wilkinson, SensePost at 4CON 2012 in London."<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsn7_4qUdwk" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsn7_4qUdwk</a>Found a short summary attempt here. <a href="http://www.securityg33k.com/blog/?p=629" rel="nofollow">http://www.securityg33k.com/blog/?p=629</a>

danielhughes将近 12 年前

I work in the advertising industry and can say with confidence that for most companies the value of this sort of data is far outweighed by the negative backlash. Look for example at the way retailers initially flirted with in-store tracking and now are abandoning that technology. That fact coupled with the likely legislative reaction leads me to think that this practice won't last long.What concerns me most is the prospect of governments doing this sort of snooping. It will probably begin with a justification that the data are valuable for managing traffic patterns and for urban planning (or other seemingly harmless purposes). But then ultimately it will be used by the government for other purposes.It might actually be a good thing if in the short term a few companies abuse the technology to the point that the public wakes up to the amount of information broadcast by their wireless devices. Perhaps it will motivate the industry to add more security as a default setting (iCloud VPN anyone?).

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a3n将近 12 年前

And the data is just a warrantless request away from a government demand, so, bonus.

drunkenmasta将近 12 年前

Doesn't the same thing happen in the US? Didn't At&t just announce a new (opt out) privacy policy? - program one "External marketing & analytics reports" - ..."for example, we might provide reports to retailers about the number of wireless devices in or near their store locations by time of day and day of week, together with the device users' collective information like ages and gender." - program two "relevant advertising including wireless location characteristics" - "we're currently creating a new 'wireless location characteristic' that will help us use local geography as a factor in delivering ads. location characteristics are types of locations - like 'movie theaters. people who live in a particular geographic area might appear to be very interested in movies, thanks to collective information that shows wireless devices from that area are often located in the vicinity of movie theaters."

pktgen将近 12 年前

I don't know anything about the internals of 802.11, so these are just random thoughts:- Could the spec be modified (or maybe it already has such a mechanism?) to allow APs to broadcast themselves every 1-2 seconds, and remove this device polling mechanism?- Instead of device polling constantly, could devices simply sniff the entire flow for frames containing a src/dst MAC address of any known APs (i.e. APs the user has selected to auto-connect to)? And only perform the polling when the user is in the AP selection screen?- Another 'hack': since we're mostly talking smartphones which all have GPS now, could devices be set to only poll for APs if they're in an area they know a recognized AP is in? Probably battery life concerns though.

malandrew将近 12 年前

Is it possible to perform constant MAC address cycling on an Android phone?This is a business doing this and it may not last long due to privacy laws, but I wouldn't be surprised if exceptions were make for the UK government to use these to track its citizens.

tehwalrus将近 12 年前

Thanks for the warning, I'll now be disabling wifi when I'm walking around in London (and other British cities, just in case.)