"We also assume that enough communication is occurring for the signal strength to have an effect on power consumption. This is a reasonable assumption, since ba

"We also assume that enough communication is occurring for the signal strength to have an effect on power consumption. This is a reasonable assumption, since background synchronization of data happens frequently in smartphone devices. Moreover, the driver might be using navigation software or streaming music. However, at this stage, it is difficult to determine how inconsistent phone usage across different rides will affect our attacks." I don't find this assumption to be reasonable at all. There are plenty of days where my cellular data usage doesn't exceed 1MB because I'm either at home, at the office or moving between them. Most background synchronization happens while I'm using WiFi (and stationary). If your location tracking activity relies on me streaming music while on route, you would probably be better of waiting outside my apartment and following me around. I appreciate the fact that other users have different mobile habits, but the authors didn't convince me that their scenario poses a feasible and significant threat to privacy.