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

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    4 days ago

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

  • Comrade_Squid@lemmy.ml
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    3 days 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.

  • DragonAce@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    IIRC, when Meta bought out iRobot, it slipped out that they were using Roombas to collect the square footage and entire layout of your house to add to your data sets. So this doesn’t seem surprising at all. Good thing I configure my own router and firewall.

  • LiveLM@lemmy.zip
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    4 days ago

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

      • Nugscree@lemmy.world
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        3 days 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.

  • RegularJoe@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    “This technology turns every router into a potential means for surveillance,” warns Julian Todt from KASTEL. “If you regularly pass by a café that operates a WiFi network, you could be identified there without noticing it and be recognized later – for example by public authorities or companies.”

    Later…

    Inexpensive or older routers either don’t store history at all or keep it for a short time.

    Newer models can store more information for more extended periods.

    https://www.thetechwire.com/how-long-does-a-router-store-history/

    • morto@piefed.social
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      5 days ago

      We used to recommend people to run the newest stuff possible, but we came to a point that maybe it’s better for us to keep with older tech for a good while

      • mecen@lemmy.ca
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        4 days ago

        Or go to more civilized countries for vacation to get not backdoored hardware.

        • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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          3 days ago

          Do you think every country has its own router hardware manufacturer and commodity chip manufacturer? 😂

          The 2 giants that make 95% of consumer routers around the world and the few companies that design the chips for them are both in heavy surveillance states.

    • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      From what I’ve just read, the tech doesn’t seem ready to identify people yet. It can supposedly detect hand gestures, but facial recognition I seriously doubt. But that’s probably just a matter of improving the tech. See this article for more info.

      • Null User Object@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        From OPs linked article…

        In tests involving 197 participants, the researchers said the system identified individuals with nearly 100% accuracy. The recognition remained effective regardless of viewing angle or how the participants walked.

        • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          I can totally believe when it tracks a person it can tell when the same person walks by again later. But matching people with their actual identities would require a database of wifi scan data that simply doesn’t exist yet.

            • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              Well in theory every tech possibility is a “yet”, but the way I read this it seems like a person or object’s interference pattern is particular to the local signal environment - not like a fingerprint a different system could recognize at the airport.

      • obviouspornalt@fedinsfw.app
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        5 days ago

        that’s a trivial problem to solve. combine this with a camera for facial recognition in a public space. then you’ve got wifi signature combined with the photo/video for facial recognition. then presumably you can use the WiFi signature anywhere else, even without the camera and be able to identify people.

        • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          I was wondering about that. The article didn’t say anything about being able to identify the same person walking past a different router. And I can’t imagine the study didn’t try. So I assume it doesn’t work.

    • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      That’s connection history. CSI motion detection software storing information it collects would be entirely independent of that. How much it saves and for how long would depend on the size of the router’s memory.

  • Imhereforfun@lemmy.world
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    3 days 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.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    It would be great if there were some open source tool kits for this. If the technology is going to exist it should be in the hands of the people.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Yeah, if this shit has to exist, at least let me use it for presence detection in Home Assistant without having to buy separate sensors or something!

      • village604@adultswim.fan
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        5 days ago

        It would be amazing to not have to deploy a network of esp32s to do it with Bluetooth.

        Although I’m already putting one in each room.

      • partofthevoice@lemmy.zip
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        5 days ago

        Probably just need a protocol to work with the data, however it can be interfaced with. Is it just measuring signal strength via speed over time?

    • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      If you’re technical you might like enjoy this article that explains how the tracking works. Basically the router can perform math on the interference created by objects moving around the room. It seems like this would have to be part of the router firmware, which doesn’t sound like a standard feature. But if it is, the fix would be to install modified firmware with that function disabled. The smoking gun will be if somebody gets into DMCA trouble for doing this.

        • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          A sufficient fix is not letting your wifi devices connect to your neighbor’s network so their router can detect you walking between it and them.

          • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works
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            1 day ago

            my devices don’t, but unless I misunderstood it it does not matter whether you are connected to the neighbor’s router

            • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              Wifi tracking uses measurements of the interference caused when objects pass between connected devices and a router. For your neighbors to track your movements their router would have to be connected to a device in your house, or maybe in the other neighbor’s house on the far side of your house, so when you walk around it interferes with that signal.

    • Tetsuo@jlai.lu
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      5 days ago

      Or an open source hardware device that changes your “wifi signature” randomly.

    • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Opensource tech to do the same thing has been in the hands of the people for a long time. This is just a different way of doing it without motion sensors.

        • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          The motion sensing is more accurate in terms of fundamentally detecting movement, but if you’re going from that to assuming it can identify who you are, no it doesn’t do that. It can recognize a person as the same person it saw in the room yesterday, based on their gait and their effect on the local wifi signal, but it has no way of knowing if the pattern belongs to Old Man Wilson or Old Lady Jenkins, because there’s no database tying those patterns to people’s identities. And besides, the patterns are specific to that one signal environmnent anyway. It’s not like a fingerprint or a facial image you could record at home and then match to someone walking around in a store, which has a different signal environment.

  • minorkeys@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days 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.

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    From what I’ve read this is built into the required wifi router for Xfinity. I discovered this when I signed up for Xfinity fiber, had the fiber installed and setup and then cancelled it the same day, because of this and not being able to buy and run my own hardware, and needing to install an app on my phone to manage the router, and apparently not being able to choose my DNS. They required that I rent their hardware for an additional $15/mo. Oh well, at least fiber is in the house now, if anyone wants it in the future. I sure won’t be paying them to spy on me.

    Fuck Comcast, still.

    • FEIN@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      app to manage router

      This shit was a pain in the ass and now learning about this makes me feel even more pissed off as a customer

      • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 days ago

        Wrap it in aluminum foil.

        Whilst this sounds a lot like a foil hat joke, that’s literally the easiest way to wrap something in a conductive material cage (i.e. a faraday cage).

        If you don’t want it to look ridiculous, put it inside a box whose inside has been lined with aluminum foil.

        Mind you, personally I too would just cancel that shit, but the option is there to carry on using it whilst blocking its radio emissions.

      • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        This was fiber, if that makes a difference. I asked the install guy, he called his boss, because no one had asked him that before. He told me “no, it’s not allowed”. Also, I tried plugging the patch cable directly into my own wifi router and nothing.

        • Null User Object@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Also, I tried plugging the patch cable directly into my own wifi router and nothing.

          The router would need to be explicitly configured to connect to your account on the network, which would require certain information provided by the ISP, which it sounds like they weren’t going to provide.

    • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      That’s because Xfinity offers motion sensing as a feature, which requires this tech in the router. Presumably it’s configurable and costs extra to turn on.

      • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        It’s a “costs extra feature” for the customer. But, they have access to it regardless of whether it’s “turned on”. It’s never turned off for them. And, if that puts me in tin-foil hat territory, so be it.

    • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Funnily enough, indoors, this would probably make you more visible as the only area with no reflections. Stealth works outdoors because the sky does not have a radar return.

    • monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      My understanding is that this catches disruptions between devices and router. I don’t think this would work. I would say you should instead sell a “bracelet” with “ancient Himalayan Salt” embedded into the silicone to absorb and cancel the tracking. It would probably sell a ton! Obviously wouldn’t work but $!

      • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Well you can’t stop it from knowing something is there. But you should be able to confuse it’s identification of a specific person.

          • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            I don’t know if it can actually see your gait. Might be that your legs are technically invisible to it. It’s just looking at how you uniquely disturb wifi signals. It maybe that your torso does most of that or something.