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Wifi hotspot locations can be triangulated, so if the regime has penalties for sharing information they want to suppress, this could be a dangerous plan for a c

• mherrmann 5y ago
  If you're sitting on a bus and only switch it on briefly?
  • giaour 5y ago
    Maybe? That would reduce the risk to the holder, but it also reduces the usability of the network, since you'd need to coordinate beforehand with potential users. That of course opens up the possibility that one of the users will give you up to the authorities you're trying to evade, who could then just wait for a bus with a wifi signal to pass by, then search all passengers for a hotspot. The risk of that happening is directly proportional to the number of users, so best to keep the whole affair small. And of course a cop could always get lucky and just catch you fiddling with a hotspot on a bus. And how are you getting a network connection to forward over wifi while riding this bus? If the network is purely local and used to access PDFs on a server on your person, then you would need to carry all that contraband information with you (and consequently increase the risk you're taking on). There's prior art you could follow from various resistance movements, though most of the examples of people not getting caught use long-range, broadcast signals like shortwave. You need sustained proximity to use regular wifi, and that strikes me as way less safe. The other thing to consider is that both ends of a wifi connection can be triangulated, so a broadcast signal is far safer for end users (unless it requires special equipment that is itself suspect or forbidden).