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Detection of hidden cellular GPS vehicle trackers

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Re: Detection of hidden cellular GPS vehicle trackers

#52
post #44
post #2

Better hope your stalker isn't friends with a law enforcement officer either: https://deflock.me/

They also used to monitor MAC addresses from various wifi access points, the MAC addresses of your computer don’t change. But now I think the vendors started fixing that.

To be clear, you absolutely can randomize your Mac on most devices nowadays.

Re: Detection of hidden cellular GPS vehicle trackers

#53

These efforts are commendable, but by and large I think our location data is just a commodity by now and it is best not to assume you can reliably hide your location permanently and reliably without spending a lot of effort. Not that I'd find that idea pleasant, I just think the ship has sailed.

Real give up attitude. Gosh people have given up.

It isn't that hard, but people are lazy as hell and love convenience.

Re: Detection of hidden cellular GPS vehicle trackers

#54

I wonder how effective an EMP would be at "sterilising" a vehicle of such trackers. Especially if the vehicle in question has no electronics and uses a mechanically-injected diesel engine.

Certainly an interesting thought if you have a very old diesel. I would wonder if all the metal would hamper an EMP pulse that you could safely generate at home.

Diesel's going back 20+ years still have ECUs as well, not to mention the rest of the vehicle's electronics could be at risk. So it would have to be a properly old or unique vehicle.

Re: Detection of hidden cellular GPS vehicle trackers

#55

These efforts are commendable, but by and large I think our location data is just a commodity by now and it is best not to assume you can reliably hide your location permanently and reliably without spending a lot of effort. Not that I'd find that idea pleasant, I just think the ship has sailed.

That is true for law enforcement, corps and nation states perhaps, but the threat vector here is just regular people who want to track someone. They're not as saavy and don't (usually) have access to the corp/leo/government databases of locating data.

For me it's about car theft, so all I am defending against is what thiefs have access to. If I can detect a scanner popped on a car at a car show before heading back to storage, I am at a huge advantage.

Re: Detection of hidden cellular GPS vehicle trackers

#56

If you're going to try and track this stuff for real, keep in mind most devices like this use motion sensors to go into low-power mode when stationary and only transmit on the move.

We talking MEMS/inertia detection, vibration detection or auto-geo-fencing?

Re: Detection of hidden cellular GPS vehicle trackers

#57
post #29
post #2

Better hope your stalker isn't friends with a law enforcement officer either: https://deflock.me/

Do you know if they also monitor bluetooth devices? Like all cars have one and if should be detectable. Also, most recent cars have DCM which are always sending data, including position to the car maker.

TPMS is also common and detectable.

Re: Detection of hidden cellular GPS vehicle trackers

#58
post #3

Interesting research, but the paper does not address the contribution to the arms race of good vs bad. The criminals will likely use this technique to find legitimate car trackers before stealing the vehicle.

I don't think cars should have trackers in them to start with unless the owner specifically puts it in there themselves, so I see this as only good.

That's the point, a legitimate tracker, such as personal tracker or fleet tracker for company owned vehicles.

Re: Detection of hidden cellular GPS vehicle trackers

#59
post #52
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also used to monitor MAC addresses from various wifi access points, the MAC addresses of your computer don’t change. But now I think the vendors started fixing that.

To be clear, you absolutely can randomize your Mac on most devices nowadays.

I think per-AP randomisation of wifi mac has been the default on any mobile device I've checked in the past five years at least. Haven't examined bluetooth as closely.

Re: Detection of hidden cellular GPS vehicle trackers

#60
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Their brand of ALPR cameras have spread like a plague very quickly all over the US

I noticed that in Abrego Garcia's recent indictment they were able to figure out he was in 2022 based on ALPR pulls that showed he was actually putzing around Texas. My understanding was most ALPRs were being stored for no more than 30 days but apparently that isn't the case, since it appears they did not start to build the trafficking case until this year.

UPDATE plate_scan SET soft_deleted = 1 WHERE now() - scan_date > 30
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