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What your Bluetooth devices reveal

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Re: What your Bluetooth devices reveal

#121

Post by ssl-3 »

m-s-y wrote: post #111
ssl-3 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not quite the end of the road, though: The tires themselves often have RFID tags embedded. https://rfid.michelin.com/what-is-rfid/

much harder to read rfid at a distance

It is.

My read through this document suggests that the maximum usable range may be as far as 5 meters, or as little as 1 meter: https://rfid.michelin.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/dataShe...

That's not as far as BLE or TPMS can work at, but it's not exactly like the NFC arrangement in a credit card, either. 5 meters is enough for a motivated attacker to do some undetected bulk data collection.

Re: What your Bluetooth devices reveal

#122

Post by oarla »

patja wrote: post #27
oarla wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but it stopped pretty soon stores figured out that they could flood you with advertisements over Bluetooth. In some places it was bad enough that I had to turn off Bluetooth.

How did this play out? Were the ads from an app from the store that you had installed? Or did they spam you over SMS because they associated your bluetooth info with an account you have with the store, or contact info they bought from a third party?

As someone explained it below in this thread, walk into a mall with Bluetooth turned on and phone starts chiming with multiple "... wants to send you a media/audio/image etc." Not just ads, some bad actors would try to infect the phone with malware. Luckily never happened to me, but I heard from my acquaintances.

Re: What your Bluetooth devices reveal

#123

Post by bigiain »

gruez wrote: post #105
bigiain wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh cool, thanks. My last time playing with this was pre covid, possibly 5 or more years pre covid. I do know for sure that my iOS devices connect with persistent MAC addresses on both my home and work wifi networks - I'd _assumed_ it was the same MAC address on both networks, but I'll be curious to see if that's correct next time I'm in the office.

You don't even need to be in the office to see it. Just go to wifi -> edit, and it'll bring up a list of saved networks. Tap on one of them and it'll show the mac address used.

Thanks!

Re: What your Bluetooth devices reveal

#125

Post by WaitWaitWha »

I am personally aware that Washington DC, same areas of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware have been tracking car Bluetooth (and EZ-Pass) for decades for "traffic management". The more BT detected the heavier tracking. The longer time between detectors for the unique BT/EZ-Pass, the slower the traffic. Adjust traffic lights down the road to improve traffic flow. (when I write Ez-Pass, i mean the toll transponder, but not detected by a toll booths or overhead arches.)

Re: What your Bluetooth devices reveal

#126

Post by sneak »

wolvoleo wrote: post #99
Gigachad wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s actually even easier, your car has a plate on the front with a unique ID that a camera scans, often to automatically track your park time for ticketing. I can’t really care about obscure Bluetooth tracking when every business has CCTV doing facial recognition.

Yeah exactly, with a car I would no longer be expecting any type of privacy, sadly. Here in Holland we must even have a mobile phone module in every car so it can call the emergencies in case of a crash.

It’s all of the EU. It’s literally illegal to sell new cars without a radio transceiver in them.

Re: What your Bluetooth devices reveal

#127

Post by sneak »

Fnoord wrote: post #36
trashb wrote: post #9

> We’ve normalised the idea that Bluetooth is always on. Phones, laptops, smartwatches, headphones, cars, and even medical devices constantly broadcast their presence. The standard response to privacy concerns is usually “nothing to hide, nothing to fear.” I guess anything you send out can be used to profile you. Some of my friends live on a farm near a semi busy road, however far enough from other farms to not be ab…

Don't worry about Tesla's being tracked. Via Bluetooth this has existed for at least 7 years [1] (was mentioned on HN as well). Tesla know (also for 7 years), Musk doesn't care 'since license plates can also be tracked'. I used it in train stations, and get hits when passing highways via train or bus. Esp. fun if you stand still due to traffic lights or traffic jam, since you can try to get a visual. The only lesson…

It’s done in Europe’s second busiest airport, Amsterdam Schiphol. I saw the advisory signs (so they can pretend that you gave informed consent by walking out of the jetbrige) up just last week.

https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/D4D12AQHCyctOFz_EJg/art...

Re: What your Bluetooth devices reveal

#128

Post by hammock »

Gigachad wrote: post #82
luma wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do this for much cheaper - all four of your tires are broadcasting a unique ID to report tire pressure, the radio to pick it up is cheap (because cars), and TPMS has no facility to randomize or otherwise secure this.

It’s actually even easier, your car has a plate on the front with a unique ID that a camera scans, often to automatically track your park time for ticketing. I can’t really care about obscure Bluetooth tracking when every business has CCTV doing facial recognition.

Wait they use this for parking meters?! Which cities?

Re: What your Bluetooth devices reveal

#129

Post by harrall »

hammock wrote: post #128
Gigachad wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s actually even easier, your car has a plate on the front with a unique ID that a camera scans, often to automatically track your park time for ticketing. I can’t really care about obscure Bluetooth tracking when every business has CCTV doing facial recognition.

Wait they use this for parking meters?! Which cities?

I think they’re pretty common.

Only reason I know is because I wondered if I could walk to the booth and press the button for a new parking ticket and pay for 5 minutes instead of 4 hours..

Re: What your Bluetooth devices reveal

#130

Post by 9991 »

craftkiller wrote: post #26
SoftTalker wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disable bluetooth on my phone, though periodically I find that it's back on. Edit: iOS

I have the opposite experience: GrapheneOS has an option to automatically turn your bluetooth off after a configurable period of not being used. So when I need to use bluetooth, I turn it on like normal. Then, without thinking about it, it automatically turns off. The end result is my bluetooth is only ever on for a couple hours each month when I'm making phone calls.

Your problem is that you chose an OS that respects you and treats you with dignity.
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