Scientists in Germany have demonstrated a startling new form of surveillance: identifying people using nothing more than ordinary WiFi signals. By analyzing how radio waves bounce around a room, researchers can effectively “see” and recognize individuals — even if they are not carrying a device and even if their phone is turned off.

The reason the FCC is only allowing the sale of state approved routers in the US?

  • solidheron@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    1 hour ago

    I know satellites can make out cities not even the visible spectrum satellites.

    Now that I think about it there are lots of wireless devices. If you have a living room TV you could block that. Obvious mesh network nodes can have their signal blocked. Also your phone can move closer too and further away from wireless router

    Yeah I could see it if you have enough data you could at least check node proximity, but floor plan mapping might be different

  • melsaskca@lemmy.caEnglish
    3·
    4 hours ago

    My meta-quest 3s is constantly scanning my home floor plan and I’m sure it’s getting shipped off to “Big Surveillance”.

    • utopiah@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      4 hours ago

      Arguably that’s a bit difference because to do that you have to explicitly do it (room setup) and you view the result (visual preview with semi-transparent triangles over your place). You can also read the ToS and I believe in some case specify if you allow the information to be sent back to the Meta. I’m not saying it’s OK, only that it’s explicit and it’s part of the “normal” usage of the device.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
        2·
        4 hours ago

        I also know that someone once demonstrated that you can do this with just a phone camera and it’s gyo and get pretty good results. That was back in 2016 before VR was much of a thing.

        I guess these days you could just do it with a camera and generate a Splat from it.

        • utopiah@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 hour ago

          A VR headset is basically a phone with lenses, so yes. That’s why cardboard and free promotional gifts of lenses snapping on phones work.

          My point though isn’t about the technical abilities but rather about the social expectations. If you buy a device that does something intrusive but you know that in order to deliver the main value it will do that, it’s OK. It’s part of the social contract. If somehow though a device is intrusive but it’s not expected, either because it was thought to be impossible to do or unrelated to it’s original purpose or both, then it’s a big problem, a breach of the social contract.

  • Comrade_Squid@lemmy.mlEnglish
    5·
    5 hours ago

    If I was a capitalist, knowing I am few and and my power only comes from the resources I own, resources stolen from the masses. I would use my stolen wealth to safe guard my own class interests against the masses. Hence we see surveillance capitalism.

  • Imhereforfun@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    7 hours ago

    This technology has been publicly demonstrated about 3 years ago, but I imagine it has been done years and years back. It’s really nothing mind blowing, just the way waves work, workaround believe it or not is the tin foil your walls.

    • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      2 hours ago

      I’ve seen YouTube videos of people able to record the image of the the vibration of a potato chip bag through a window to recreate the audio from the room.

  • minorkeys@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    10·
    10 hours ago

    Mass data mixed with machine learning pattern identification means what already exists will lead to broken as fuck capabilities for those who own everyone. Ie. Not us.

  • LiveLM@lemmy.zipEnglish
    22·
    14 hours ago

    Ok now what router do I buy and what firmware do I flash to plug this into Home Assistant?

      • Nugscree@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        5 hours ago

        Faraday cage, it’s going to be a hassle to wiremesh your entire apartment, and you can forget using a mobile phone inside of it, but there are no outside signals getting in that way.

  • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
    454·
    22 hours ago

    “Oh my goodness, this is a nightmare” typed everyone into their government approved location recording devices that can show them cats and boobs.

  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    20 hours ago

    and this is why you should flood your home with as many APs as possible. I have 17 APs running in my 1000sqft house.

    can’t find shit if it’s too noisy.

    • Bluewing@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 hours ago

      It’s a start. It may take time to make it work for “everyday” use, but if it’s possible now, it can be done better in the future.

      • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        6 hours ago

        I would expect them having access to that anyway when they control the device, or when they are the manufacturer

    • hovercat@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      10·
      20 hours ago

      I can tell you as someone who read the papers on very early deepfakes and AI video generation with amazement followed by dread, this is going to be feasible on a large scale in a short period of time. Researchers do stuff on an absolute shoestring budget usually, it’s incomparable to what large companies and governments have at their disposal. There are already consumer products that were able to become fairly precise motion sensors with just a firmware update. Next gen devices will be built with motion fingerprinting in mind, I can almost guarantee it.

    • brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      4·
      16 hours ago

      It gets more accurate with more access points, too. So corporate and education settings will be the easy places for this to get implemented.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    10 hours ago

    The question with mandating US made routers may be either to protect citizens from foreign attacks - or to make sure every US router is a router with a government-approved backdoor.

    On which option would you bet?