Technocrat

The Opposite of War Driving

zogger
Tue Jul 22 17:48:00 -0700 2008
Security.
manage

If it is in a fixed place, that would be an "ambush". It has been reported that a network of bluetooth scanners were installed and used to monitor "city life" in general, the travelings of people as they went about their day to day business carrying their bluetooth enabled and transmitting phones, PDAs and notebooks. The originators of the study made the software available and a lot of people have been using it. Some privacy people think this just shows how people are not able to keep up with the security aspects of the technological advances that they embrace when they buy new gadgets.

There are more than 10 scanners in Bath, and more than 1,000 elsewhere in the world, after Cityware made the software freely available through sites such as Facebook. In Bath alone, about 3,000 people are being spotted each weekend, and about 250,000 people have been logged by Cityware scanners across the globe. ed.z.: Interesting larger picture question, if it is merely possible to do, is it correct to do? I've never been into "network penetration" as a hobby, I always thought it was fairly dodgy to begin with and went downhill from there. But..airwaves....is there really a difference? General radio scanners are common place and it used to be quite possible to eavesdrop on just general phone calls with legal off the shelf hardware, although that was technically changed. So where does it ultimately end and who decides what is proper or not? If your blinds are open, is it legal for someone else to look in? With normal eyeballs from the sidewalk, a telescope from across the city, or how about a step ladder on the sidewalk out front with binoculars and a video camera so they can look straight in at the second story level? And like that, where is a realistic line with optical data or electromagnetic data? And the opposite, how proactive of behavior should be legal when dealing with what you might perceive to be active snooping? If someone finds one of these "sit in place" secret bluetooth scanners, should they be able to bluetooth crack it themselves and poison it, bork their network, just because they "can", that they have the tech to do so? Where is active optical or electronic self defense in this stew of possibilities? If the guy is on the sidewalk just glancing in the window, well, you can't do much, but if he is up on the ladder with the binoculars is it OK to nail him with a laser pointer? How far is too far before what is public comes to be private and is none of the other person's business?

The Opposite of War Driving
ssclift
Tue Jul 22 19:09:06 -0700 2008
 manage

Ha! A guy did this at my university so I used the opportunity to send a different some jovial harassment by changing my Bluetooth ID before passing by his office.

But seriously, it would be useful for analyzing traffic patterns, perhaps making the case for improvement or revision of public transit networks.

The Opposite of War Driving
KlaymenDK
Wed Jul 23 01:50:17 -0700 2008
 manage

I can definitely see the usefulness of measuring density and flow of crowds. I firmly believe that city planning --on many scales-- could become very much better if they started using such data gathering technology.

But "any technology that can be used for good...", right? There's the matter of anonymising the data. If pedestrians or citizens are just that then fine by me, but especially using things like Bluetooth IDs, or facial recog on street surveillance cams, you have the ability (opportunity?) to track individuals. It'd be the modern equivalent of the 1x1pixel gif tracker, you know? And that's the part that makes me nervous.

But then, a Bluetooth 'ambush' system as described here, like the gif tracker, would only be able to track those individuals who are not smart enough to shield themselves from it. And, contrary to facial recog cams, it's trivial to punch a few buttons on your pocket device to avoid standing out, so that's a definite plus.

I think I lean towards liking this, so far.

The Opposite of War Driving
N. Dan Smith
Wed Jul 23 11:05:16 -0700 2008
 manage

This reminds me of some shopping mall which was using GNU radio to track people movements via cellphones.  Not a privacy concern, just gathering data.

 

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