4 ms·

> Nobody expects that I can show up directly at their house, if they just say their SSID or simply send me a screenshot of their Android home screen. (It's not

> Nobody expects that I can show up directly at their house, if they just say their SSID or simply send me a screenshot of their Android home screen. (It's not relevant to the discussion but Android home screens show the name of the connected WiFi network?) Where can someone look up a lat,lng by entering an SSID? It sure doesn't work on the site you cited. It looks like the information that is there was explicitly shared by the router operator. SSIDs only need to differ from neighbors' SSIDs for convenience, to help tell them apart. If you already have neighbors using a default, like "xfinity", you might not want to choose that to avoid extra hassle when setting up new devices. But if you're concerned about someone learning your SSID and finding a database to map it to a location, can pick a generic manufacturer's SSID of which there will be thousands, if not millions, of devices using the same SSID.

alias_neo 5y ago
I'm not making any judgement on the practice itself, however, for the purposes of tracking, I suspect they use the BSSID The SSID is just the mutable part so you can opt-out, the actual identifier used is much more likely to be the BSSID which should be universally unique, and is (generally, or at least practically) immutable for any one piece of hardware.
- extra88 5y ago
  Right, BSSID (i.e. the MAC address of the router's WiFi interface) of an access point, unlike a client, needs to be remain consistent. But that's irrelevant to the threat model I was replying to.
addingnumbers 5y ago
wigle.net returns lat/long for SSID and BSSID (MAC) searches
- extra88 5y ago
  Now that one more or less works (not really in the map view but I assume there's an API or some other way to use the raw data). If you're trying to maintain your online anonymity, best to not be casual about revealing your SSID. Or don't choose a super-unique one. "Pretty fly for a WiFi" far from generic but there are still hundreds with that name in a single greater metropolitan area.
Sebb767 5y ago
> (It's not relevant to the discussion but Android home screens show the name of the connected WiFi network?) Yes, nearly always in the top drawer [0], but I've also seen widgets on the home screen or in the status bar. > Where can someone look up a lat,lng by entering an SSID? Others already linked it, but https://wigle.net/ https://wigle.net/ allows you to - sorry for linking the wrong map! > . But if you're concerned about someone learning your SSID and finding a database to map it to a location, can pick a generic manufacturer's SSID of which there will be thousands, if not millions, of devices using the same SSID. I don't know about the US, but in Germany most manufacturers have an unique appendage to the name, i.e. "Vodafone HomeBox DEHGTN". And the name doesn't have to be totally unique; if you can narrow the location down to a country or even a city (which is usually not that hard if you read someones post history or talk with them) it should suffice. Also, it's not big when someone is aware of this tracking possibility. The real problem is that most people aren't. EDIT: Just to prove my point, it took me 2 minutes to find out you're in Massachusetts [1]. If you're SSID is a bit unique, this is probably already sufficient. [0] First panel in https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/xl-AHFNqlM-WwZ9z0JyAGx3B6Ww=/2200x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/001_track-data-usage-on-your-android-121660-defb939deff74d51b9a541e3564f196f.jpg https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/xl-AHFNqlM-WwZ9z0JyAGx3B6Ww=/2... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27423016 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27423016

alias_neo 5y ago

I'm not making any judgement on the practice itself, however, for the purposes of tracking, I suspect they use the BSSID The SSID is just the mutable part so you can opt-out, the actual identifier used is much more likely to be the BSSID which should be universally unique, and is (generally, or at least practically) immutable for any one piece of hardware.

extra88 5y ago
Right, BSSID (i.e. the MAC address of the router's WiFi interface) of an access point, unlike a client, needs to be remain consistent. But that's irrelevant to the threat model I was replying to.

addingnumbers 5y ago

wigle.net returns lat/long for SSID and BSSID (MAC) searches

extra88 5y ago
Now that one more or less works (not really in the map view but I assume there's an API or some other way to use the raw data). If you're trying to maintain your online anonymity, best to not be casual about revealing your SSID. Or don't choose a super-unique one. "Pretty fly for a WiFi" far from generic but there are still hundreds with that name in a single greater metropolitan area.

Sebb767 5y ago

> (It's not relevant to the discussion but Android home screens show the name of the connected WiFi network?) Yes, nearly always in the top drawer [0], but I've also seen widgets on the home screen or in the status bar. > Where can someone look up a lat,lng by entering an SSID? Others already linked it, but https://wigle.net/ https://wigle.net/ allows you to - sorry for linking the wrong map! > . But if you're concerned about someone learning your SSID and finding a database to map it to a location, can pick a generic manufacturer's SSID of which there will be thousands, if not millions, of devices using the same SSID. I don't know about the US, but in Germany most manufacturers have an unique appendage to the name, i.e. "Vodafone HomeBox DEHGTN". And the name doesn't have to be totally unique; if you can narrow the location down to a country or even a city (which is usually not that hard if you read someones post history or talk with them) it should suffice. Also, it's not big when someone is aware of this tracking possibility. The real problem is that most people aren't. EDIT: Just to prove my point, it took me 2 minutes to find out you're in Massachusetts [1]. If you're SSID is a bit unique, this is probably already sufficient. [0] First panel in https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/xl-AHFNqlM-WwZ9z0JyAGx3B6Ww=/2200x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/001_track-data-usage-on-your-android-121660-defb939deff74d51b9a541e3564f196f.jpg https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/xl-AHFNqlM-WwZ9z0JyAGx3B6Ww=/2... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27423016 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27423016