Flock-style scanners now track WiFi/Bluetooth identity from devices in your car

31 pointsposted 5 hours ago
by ck2
(techradar.com)

13 Comments

cluckindan

3 hours ago

Malls and stores have done this for a decade and then some, from devices on you.

iberator

2 hours ago

wow. is it legal to capture and process such data?

mikestew

an hour ago

So the question is, is it legal for me to receive radio emissions that your device freely emits?

tavavex

an hour ago

The question is, is it legal for you to collect everyone's emissions automatically, process them, derive conclusions from them and sell them to third parties?

The assumption that "if doing 1x of something is okay, then surely so is doing 10000x of it fully automatically" has gone unchallenged for too long. We can see the societal implications this has had so far, and it's fully logically consistent to be able to say no to that. Just because I can see you out on the street, broadcasting your visual appearance for the whole world, doesn't mean I should be allowed to record you, analyze your appearance, retain recordings of you forever, automatically track you across the places that many cameras spotted you at and then resell that data to advertising and tech corporations.

Small-scale individual recording is okay. Automated mass recording and processing without an extremely convincing reason and thorough limitations and checks should not be.

4d4m

4 hours ago

Friendly reminder many manufactured goods also have RFID stickers within, used to track/trace parts during factory assembly. These are active and readable at all times by systems like this - irrespective of if the devices are powered.

tavavex

an hour ago

Are passive RFID tags actually trackable for these purposes? That's horrifying. But I thought they would only be readable from at most a meter, maybe several with sensitive equipment - far too short of a range, no?

ck2

4 hours ago

ha my shoes have RFid tags for stock tracking, I wonder how far away that can be read

even most watches people have now broadcast bluetooth MAC (and maybe ANT+ id)

and that data is never ever going away, there's no warrant and no law to regulate it

they still have tracking data for everyone who visited Epstein Island decades ago (which is even more crazy that no-one was prosecuted out of hundreds)

foxyv

4 hours ago

You can read a passive RFID from about 30 meters with the right equipment.

ck2

5 hours ago

mirror: https://tech.yahoo.com/cybersecurity/articles/flock-style-sc...

we have reached the point where now at any point in the future they can trace anyone backwards for months without a warrant (and without probable cause)

they can pick a person and then just look for a crime to prosecute since most people break laws daily without realizing it

cucumber3732842

3 hours ago

Nah, they won't prosecute for a crime. People accused of crimes have these pesky things called rights.

They'll find some civil infraction to threaten you with. You'll be cast into a kangaroo system where the deck is stacked against you, you have no presumption of innocence, no right to not self incriminate, you have nearly no right to see let alone question the evidince against you. And of course the civil infraction will have some absurd dollar figure attached thanks to all the useful idiots who think that the fine "needs to be a deterrent".

N_Lens

a minute ago

(In)justice system