3 ms·
I can't imagine that tracking cell phone emissions is the simplest way to estimate the number of people in a line. I also can't imagine this is the only thing
by sehugg 12y ago
I can't imagine that tracking cell phone emissions is the simplest way to estimate the number of people in a line.
I also can't imagine this is the only thing they are doing/planning to do with the data.
- schoen 12y agoMaybe more significantly, they aren't the only ones who are collecting this data. A lot of retailers are doing it, and apparently some governments and others are doing it too, all to keep track of people's whereabouts and habits. There are also people who get in a position to map between a device MAC address and an online identity. The easiest case is people who operate hotspots that make people pay; there are also hotspots where you can authenticate (sometimes optionally) with an account of the hotspot operator's service, which may now include Facebook, not just mobile carriers. In prior mobile OS versions -- at least -- some mobile apps were also directly collecting the wifi MAC address and sending it back to the app developer.
- rasz_pl 12y agoIt is the cheapest to implement, commodity $4 wifi/bt chip is enough to gather all the data, and you dont even have to process it all that much, 200-400MHz router SoC can do it without external controllers.