Add The New York Post on Google Think ditching your cellphone and laptop means nobody can track you? Think again.
Scientists have discovered a chilling way ordinary WiFi networks could work together to identify people with near-perfect accuracy — even when they aren’t carrying a phone, smartwatch, Fitbit, laptop or any other connected device, according to Science Daily.
Researchers found that unencrypted signals routinely exchanged between WiFi devices and routers can be used to create radio-based images — akin to a camera — of people and recognize them within seconds.
The finding raises the unsettling possibility that the millions of WiFi routers surrounding us could become a vast, invisible surveillance network — potentially allowing corporations, governments or others to identify people without their knowledge.
“The technology is powerful, but at the same time entails risks to our fundamental rights, especially to privacy,” said professsor Thorsten Strufe from Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
The method takes advantage of normal communications produced by legitimate users connected to WiFi networks operating within a home, office, café or similar location.
Connected devices routinely send information back to routers to optimize wireless communications. Those signals, known as beamforming feedback information, are transmitted without encryption, researchers found.
That means someone within range could potentially analyze the signals without the person being tracked ever knowing it.
“This technology turns every router into a potential means for surveillance,” warned co-researcher Julian Todt. “If you regularly pass by a café that operates a WiFi network, you could be identified there without noticing it and be recognized later.”
The team tested the technique in a study of 197 participants and said its system was able to infer their identities with almost 100% accuracy.
The team is now calling for protective measures and privacy safeguards to be built into new WiFi systems — before it’s too late.
