I think Stop & Shop grocery stores are doing something tangential to this. If you use their in-store price scanner, it will beep at you on occasion, telling you about deals on an item that just happens to be in the aisle you're standing in! So while they might not know who *I* am (or they might), they sure know where I am in the store.
On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 9:51 AM, Joe Ashbrook <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi all, > > I just wanted to throw this out there as I rarely hear anything about > 802.11 tracking. Aside from a few companies, such as Path Intelligence or > Skyhook (SpotRank technology), I never hear of any commercial systems that > attempt to track mobile devices (users). Of course, the companies listed > above are rather opaque in describing how their technology works. > > As everyone on this mailing list is aware, basic 802.11 "hacking" > techniques can provide a lot of useful information on mobile devices and > their users. I am surprised there has not been more commercial interest in > data mining of mobile devices. Especially given that staying withing the > data link layer has proven to be legal - or so it seems the golden rule is > to not include payload... > > Anyways, in this era of "Big Data" I expected to see more retailers (or > any commercial entity) interested in collecting information about devices > within physical proximity of them. I expect the most powerful use in > analyzing mobile device data would be in a deanonymized form, and perhaps > due to privacy concerns is why companies are shy to experiment with this, > or already are and just keep in on the DL. > > I envision retailers using this type of technology to create 'shopper' > profiles. For instance, reconstructing a devices preferred network list (by > capturing directed probe requests) may give them information about where > else a shopper visits (directed probe request for SSID 'Panera'). Or, cross > referencing with other shoppers PNL, may be able to identify relationships > among shoppers (directed probe request from Joe's device SSID > "ByteMe", directed probe request from Tim's device for SSID "ByteMe"). > > For a final project in completing my undergrad degree I wrote a paper on > this, which I attached if anyone cares to skim it. It has some code at the > end for a Kismet protocol dissector to insert 802.11 probes in a mysql db. > This was a proof of concept for the class intended only as an > academic exercise. > > I recall some researcher (~ a year ago) explaining how iOS devices will > broadcast their last 3 wireless networks connected, which I never heard > anything else about. So I know this is not a new topic. Being such a > fascinating subject I am curious if anyone else has some input in regards > to this. > > -Joe > > > _______________________________________________ > Pauldotcom mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com >
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