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Note that the tech is there to do this with the cell radio -- no WiFi required. It's just a lot more expensive and hasn't been widely commercialized yet. The g

Note that the tech is there to do this with the cell radio -- no WiFi required. It's just a lot more expensive and hasn't been widely commercialized yet. The gap that's left open here, as with many semi-anonymized tracking systems, is joining the data up with some other stream of data that identifies the person. Once cell phones become wallets, that should be easy enough for merchants to do. Just join up the purchase transaction data with the location data. Of course the obvious way to do this would be to simply provide an open-access WiFi spot that required a valid email to access. And don't forget that such publicly-accessible data as your WiFi radio ID is easily put on a database and traded. Over time, using several such matching systems, you could probably build up a 95%+ accurate tracking system of people with their identities attached. Not trying to over-dramatize this story. No matter what your views of privacy and anonymity, to me it's fascinating from simply a technology standpoint to watch all the pieces slowly lining up. It's like watching a puzzle slowly being fitted together.

dhimes 15y ago
The article indicated they could do that (and the author inferred it would have to happen) with the user's permission. I think your visual of watching a puzzle come together is quite a brilliant description.
- re_todd 15y ago
  I prefer to call it a train wreck in slow motion.
JackC 15y ago
Ooh, let me help you over-dramatize. One great way to radio-fingerprint people is when they use a point-of-sale device like a credit card checkout or an ATM or a pay-at-the-pump gas station. Put a camera on it (if you don't have one already), and you get (1) a good picture of someone's face; (2) their name and maybe address; (3) a unique way to identify them (credit card number); and (4) a short list of their possible radio IDs. Within a few encounters, you can be 99.9% sure which radio IDs belong to them. Put this system in, oh, 7-11s, Shell gas stations, and pay ATMs, and pretty soon you'll have a match for a good chunk of the population. Plus of course it gets easier as you go along -- the more people you have affirmatively identified in a location, the easier it is to narrow down the rest. The product is a subscription database that will show you a map of your surroundings with a mug shot for each person nearby. Click the picture and you can find out anything that can be learned from their name, address, magazine subscriptions, purchase history etc -- their politics, income, education, interests, relatives, etc. If you've managed to link their email yet, you can also get all their recent online activity ... OK, maybe banks and gas companies aren't that evil, or at least would quickly be stopped. So let me ask this: what kind of radio-fingerprint database could someone build with a botnet? You control a webcam, a wireless card, and unencrypted access to the user's internet browsing. Where does that get you? (Probably all of this is a bit silly, but it's fun to imagine what could be done with existing technology ...)
- phogster 15y ago
  Big Brother, where art thou?
gyardley 15y ago
Oh man, I wish I had the patience for enterprise sales. This would be absolutely terrific for attributing offline sales to online advertising, and for understanding how e-commerce behavior relates to in-store behavior.

dhimes 15y ago

The article indicated they could do that (and the author inferred it would have to happen) with the user's permission. I think your visual of watching a puzzle come together is quite a brilliant description.

re_todd 15y ago
I prefer to call it a train wreck in slow motion.

JackC 15y ago

Ooh, let me help you over-dramatize. One great way to radio-fingerprint people is when they use a point-of-sale device like a credit card checkout or an ATM or a pay-at-the-pump gas station. Put a camera on it (if you don't have one already), and you get (1) a good picture of someone's face; (2) their name and maybe address; (3) a unique way to identify them (credit card number); and (4) a short list of their possible radio IDs. Within a few encounters, you can be 99.9% sure which radio IDs belong to them. Put this system in, oh, 7-11s, Shell gas stations, and pay ATMs, and pretty soon you'll have a match for a good chunk of the population. Plus of course it gets easier as you go along -- the more people you have affirmatively identified in a location, the easier it is to narrow down the rest. The product is a subscription database that will show you a map of your surroundings with a mug shot for each person nearby. Click the picture and you can find out anything that can be learned from their name, address, magazine subscriptions, purchase history etc -- their politics, income, education, interests, relatives, etc. If you've managed to link their email yet, you can also get all their recent online activity ... OK, maybe banks and gas companies aren't that evil, or at least would quickly be stopped. So let me ask this: what kind of radio-fingerprint database could someone build with a botnet? You control a webcam, a wireless card, and unencrypted access to the user's internet browsing. Where does that get you? (Probably all of this is a bit silly, but it's fun to imagine what could be done with existing technology ...)

phogster 15y ago
Big Brother, where art thou?

gyardley 15y ago

Oh man, I wish I had the patience for enterprise sales. This would be absolutely terrific for attributing offline sales to online advertising, and for understanding how e-commerce behavior relates to in-store behavior.