Scientists Can Track You via Plain Wi-Fi Even Without a Phone
Leaving your smartphone at home will no longer protect your anonymity. Researchers just figured out how to turn ambient Wi-Fi radio ripples into invisible wall-penetrating biometric scanners.
Researchers at the KIT KASTEL Institute discovered that standard Wi-Fi hardware can reconstruct high-detail body shapes and identify specific humans without specialized radar gear. The tracked individual does not even need to carry a connected gadget, provided someone nearby is actively using a wireless network.
Modern routers communicate with client devices using unencrypted beamforming feedback information (BFI) to steer signals. Because these radio waves bounce off flesh and obstacles, any passive receiver within range can eavesdrop on these unencrypted packets to map out physical reflections and silhouette movements.
During practical tests involving 197 human participants, the engineering team led by Professor Thorsten Strufe identified specific individuals with nearly 100% accuracy, remaining completely unaffected by viewing angles or walking quirks.
The researchers presented their findings at the ACM Computer and Communications Security conference in Taipei, urging the immediate addition of cryptographic protections to the upcoming IEEE 802.11bf wireless standard.
The concept of physical privacy in public spaces continues to evaporate as ordinary coffee shop routers gain the unintended superpower of passive biometric surveillance.
Source: ACM Digital Library
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