What's his gdpr policy?
Trivia: Norway is not in the EU, but they still adopted the GDPR. (A possible practical effect might be implementation differences due to that)
Student tracks Bluetooth headset wearers by wardriving around Oslo on a bicycle
21–30 of 36 posts
Re: Student tracks Bluetooth headset wearers by wardriving around Oslo on a bicycle
#22In Houston, TX, USA, I noticed antennas placed over individual highway lanes. It turns out they track the Bluetooth signals from cars to determine traffic. They even have a message on their website saying people should be more worried about license plate tracking. https://www.houstontranstar.org/faq/traffictech.aspx On the OEM infotainment center in my vehicle, I can't even find a way to turn off Bluetooth.
You know what you cant turn off? TPMS. I mean you can remove them from your car, but those little guys broadcast and with the right equipment you can track cars with them.
Yes. The IDs are unique, fixed, and easy to pick up. You have to broadcast a low-frequency signal first to enable them and they'll emit a signal. There are several projects on GitHub to pick them up, and I've successfully done it.
Re: Student tracks Bluetooth headset wearers by wardriving around Oslo on a bicycle
#23In Houston, TX, USA, I noticed antennas placed over individual highway lanes. It turns out they track the Bluetooth signals from cars to determine traffic. They even have a message on their website saying people should be more worried about license plate tracking. https://www.houstontranstar.org/faq/traffictech.aspx On the OEM infotainment center in my vehicle, I can't even find a way to turn off Bluetooth.
Iteris (formerly Traffic Cast) is a company that does this too
Re: Student tracks Bluetooth headset wearers by wardriving around Oslo on a bicycle
#24What's his gdpr policy?
Reading GDPR's definition of personal data I think he is safe
Re: Student tracks Bluetooth headset wearers by wardriving around Oslo on a bicycle
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
GDPR applies to organizations, he is not an organization and not doing it as a business.
He's storing private data that can geolocate people (mac address + exact geolocation + timestamp)
With that you can not identify any individual. You can try to prove that some device was at that location at the time.
Re: Student tracks Bluetooth headset wearers by wardriving around Oslo on a bicycle
#26I considered building a tool to have running that would capture WiFi/Bluetooth addresses of those around in case of a burglary, but I figured most devices anonymize their addresses nowadays.
I had a similar idea, and I suspect that address randomization isn't as big a problem as you might suspect, since many people have a paired device (i.e. headphones), and that pairing often uses classic Bluetooth, so it must have a fixed address. The burglar's car is also likely to broadcast unrandomized bluetooth if it's in the area, also.
But the real trouble with this system is that the police aren't going to do anything with this data unless there's a murder. Even if a bluetooth device were stolen and you could locate it, the police will not likely help you recover anything. And this assumes that they even understand what this pissed-off nerd is on about.
Amazon, however, could build a bluetooth sniffer or IMSI catcher into its devices and sell the resulting data to law enforcement, who could then avoid the time and expense of getting a warrant for location data. Assuming that the police care at all about property crime, this would achieve the goal.
Re: Student tracks Bluetooth headset wearers by wardriving around Oslo on a bicycle
#27Isn't the just technical parlance for following somebody on your bike? There's nothing original here.
Re: Student tracks Bluetooth headset wearers by wardriving around Oslo on a bicycle
#28In Houston, TX, USA, I noticed antennas placed over individual highway lanes. It turns out they track the Bluetooth signals from cars to determine traffic. They even have a message on their website saying people should be more worried about license plate tracking. https://www.houstontranstar.org/faq/traffictech.aspx On the OEM infotainment center in my vehicle, I can't even find a way to turn off Bluetooth.
Yeah, I rewrote a system for a company that did this. If it makes you feel any safer, the original codebase was an error-prone mess written by an intern. It’s not any more, but all it did was ping for MAC addresses at both ends of the stretch. I suppose the data could prove your presence, but it’s the presence of your car really. At least with Apple the MAC gets cycled now.
ok cool, did you leave a spare key under the mat so we can turn it off?
Re: Student tracks Bluetooth headset wearers by wardriving around Oslo on a bicycle
#29Actual paper as a web page: https://www.hegnes.tech/2021/09/01/location-tracking-of-wifi... Wow, lots of maps in there. He also recorded WiFi SSIDs and mapped which one were still on WEP, or even unencrypted (although my guess is these are public ones like in a coffee shop)
> or even unencrypted Even unencrypted? I am biased here having run an open wifi since they were commercially avilable. In the beginning, there was this huge concern that wifi would hurt the last mile ISP business. Many started outright forbidding guests using the connection in their terms of service. That didn't work out very well. Calling them insecure and having papers write about how to check that other people co…
[deleted]
Re: Student tracks Bluetooth headset wearers by wardriving around Oslo on a bicycle
#30In Houston, TX, USA, I noticed antennas placed over individual highway lanes. It turns out they track the Bluetooth signals from cars to determine traffic. They even have a message on their website saying people should be more worried about license plate tracking. https://www.houstontranstar.org/faq/traffictech.aspx On the OEM infotainment center in my vehicle, I can't even find a way to turn off Bluetooth.
In one state I cannot mention, in Australia, there are at least 4000 of these things by the side of the road. During criminal cases its not unusual for a vehicles MAC address to be run through the database of collected data and matched to the vehicles location at a point in time. If the vehicle was also carrying correct plates then ALPR can be included. Prosecution gets to present a very pretty map with detailed timestamps.
I cannot mention the state because their presence is not disclosed publicly.