Party Squasher: guest occupancy counter for homes • Hacker News Board

Re: Party Squasher: guest occupancy counter for homes

#11

Post by Domenic_S » Fri, Jan 03, 2025, 5:28 AM UTC

mik3y wrote: post #5

Thought this was going to be an mmWave sensor with an "AirBnB host friendly" UI of some sort.. turns out it's just a network sniffer? Seems.. defeatable. > How it Works > > Party Squasher uses the presence of mobile phones > as a proxy for the presence of people. You start by > connecting our small sensor to your property’s internet > router. [...]

Sounds like it's an 802.11 monitor mode packet sniffer, recording probe requests (which have a MAC address associated with them). Connecting to the internet is probably just to hook up to their cloud service.

Defeatable by airplane mode/wifi off/phone off, sure.

Re: Party Squasher: guest occupancy counter for homes

#12

Post by int0x29 » Fri, Jan 03, 2025, 5:30 AM UTC

So if I'm pissed at the neighboring AirBnB I just need to broadcast a lot of Wi-Fi network discovery queries (With different MACs of course)?

Re: Party Squasher: guest occupancy counter for homes

#13

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 03, 2025, 5:31 AM UTC

Rendello wrote: post #2

I could definitely see the use from a landlord's perspective but of course would hate this as a tenant. My last landlord wanted me to sign a lot of arbitrary (and mostly unenforceable) rules. One was "no guests without permission". I read it over and asked him, "so if I have someone sleep over, you want me to call you on your cell?" He scratched out the rule.

[deleted]

Re: Party Squasher: guest occupancy counter for homes

#14

Post by bb88 » Fri, Jan 03, 2025, 5:32 AM UTC

aeternum wrote: post #6

This is pretty clever but could also lead to the greatest parties in recent history. Very soon the norm will be to keep your phone off at any airbnb party.

Imagine an app that would alert you if a bunch of your friends turned off their phones at a location. Airbnb Party!

Re: Party Squasher: guest occupancy counter for homes

#15

Post by petesergeant » Fri, Jan 03, 2025, 5:37 AM UTC

Neat. I stayed at an Airbnb recently with a microphone based one, which was easy to unplug, and led me to give a 0-star review, because fuck you for putting an internet-enabled microphone in my space. I’d be much more comfortable with this.

Re: Party Squasher: guest occupancy counter for homes

#16

Post by bb88 » Fri, Jan 03, 2025, 5:38 AM UTC

Domenic_S wrote: post #11

mik3y wrote: post #5

Thought this was going to be an mmWave sensor with an "AirBnB host friendly" UI of some sort.. turns out it's just a network sniffer? Seems.. defeatable. > How it Works > > Party Squasher uses the presence of mobile phones > as a proxy for the presence of people. You start by > connecting our small sensor to your property’s internet > router. [...]

Sounds like it's an 802.11 monitor mode packet sniffer, recording probe requests (which have a MAC address associated with them). Connecting to the internet is probably just to hook up to their cloud service. Defeatable by airplane mode/wifi off/phone off, sure.

I wonder if you could trigger false alarms at will. At what point would the owners stop responding?

Re: Party Squasher: guest occupancy counter for homes

#17

Post by ghshephard » Fri, Jan 03, 2025, 5:39 AM UTC

The new thing in Corporate controlled apartments is they have your apartment fully set up with remote telemetry, which also means they have WiFi Hotspots installed in all units. From there, they track things like the hot water tank, water in the sink, heating/cooling, etc..

I can see "PartySquasher" type technology becoming a feature in w/corporate controlled apartments. Mine is particularly intrusive (Park Place, San Mateo) - in that they also have all the doors digitalized as well as the entry into mailroom/complex via Bluetooth authentication. Just to make sure you have to digitally log in to your apartment - they also lock you in 120 seconds after entering, so you can't just leave your door unlocked.

You just know that this is absolutely the future of housing once private equity starts to dominate the corporate landlord space.

Re: Party Squasher: guest occupancy counter for homes

#18

Post by petesergeant » Fri, Jan 03, 2025, 5:40 AM UTC

kedikedi wrote: post #4

Interesting approach. I have a feeling that this is intended for sparsely built houses (the typical american housing maybe?) since in a dense European city I’d imagine it would pick up tons of cell phone signals from other people in their own homes or, say, from people visiting the downstairs coffee shop terrace.

From their website:

> Our service is ideal for detached homes, where our calibration (small, medium or large homes) lets the sensor distinguish between mobile phones on your property and those nearby. It is not suitable to homes (e.g. apartments) that share walls with other homes.

Re: Party Squasher: guest occupancy counter for homes

#19

Post by ParadisoShlee » Fri, Jan 03, 2025, 5:40 AM UTC

why are Landlords like this?

Re: Party Squasher: guest occupancy counter for homes

#20

Post by 0_____0 » Fri, Jan 03, 2025, 5:45 AM UTC

Domenic_S wrote: post #11

mik3y wrote: post #5

Thought this was going to be an mmWave sensor with an "AirBnB host friendly" UI of some sort.. turns out it's just a network sniffer? Seems.. defeatable. > How it Works > > Party Squasher uses the presence of mobile phones > as a proxy for the presence of people. You start by > connecting our small sensor to your property’s internet > router. [...]

Sounds like it's an 802.11 monitor mode packet sniffer, recording probe requests (which have a MAC address associated with them). Connecting to the internet is probably just to hook up to their cloud service. Defeatable by airplane mode/wifi off/phone off, sure.

Phone off maybe. Android still uses Wifi when Wifi is turned off, as part of it's location tracking service. I loathe it. Btw if you toggle location off enough times, Android will eventually stop nagging you about it.

Let me use my device the way I want you f--- creeps!