Tweets from a retailer whose initials are A-M-A-Z-O-N remind me daily there are less than 30 days until Black Friday. (Non-U.S. readers, Black Friday is an attempt to build up a sense of personal worth weakened by the prior day’s association with family members. “I shop, therefore my life has meaning.”)
Build your own IMSI slurping, phone-stalking Stingray-lite box – using bog-standard Wi-Fi by John Leyden.
From the post:
Black Hat EU Wi-Fi networks can tease IMSI numbers out of nearby smartphones, allowing pretty much anyone to wirelessly track and monitor people by their handsets’ fingerprints. (emphasis in original)
See John’s post for the details but if only being able to track people by their cellphones sounds ho-hum, think again.
Mall shoppers are tracked by observers, video, credit card purchases, but what about tracking their physical locations from entry into the mall, all ay shopping until they exit?
Inexpensively, unless you want to triangulate their precise locations.
Assuming the data is centralized for processing, identification of shoppers who previously visited ****, or who just were at the food court, or even individuals, could be provided in real time.
So far as I know, Wi-Fi networks are legal in all fifty states of the United States.
The presentation and the slides.
Privacy tip: Leave you smart phone in your car.