Tech adds phone tracking to license plate readers, associating devices with cars

Tech adds phone tracking to license plate readers, associating devices with cars(theconversation.com)

16 points by asdefghyk 55 days ago | 5 comments

asdefghyk 55 days ago |

SignalTrace, a system marketed by the security company Leonardo, is designed to work alongside automatic license plate readers. The company says it can recognize groups of consumer devices that regularly move together, then associate them with license plate records and time-stamped locations. The pattern can then be searched even when a police investigator does not know the plate number

salawat 55 days ago | |

I grow weary of this overreach. We really need to randomize device identifiers at just about all levels. Then again, I've always said the identifiers existing in the first place is a desperate bid to try to artificially implement a fingerprint in a society that until recently was seemingly fully cognizant of the folly of trying to do such things, and recognized such attempts for what they are... Power grabs.

stuaxo 55 days ago |

How is it tracking them, by faking base stations (should be illegal) - or Wifi + Bluetooth ?

Do we get to a point where everyone has to exercise opsec and have their phones completely off a lot of the time and especially when travelling ?

JohnFen 55 days ago | |

According to them, they're tracking Wifi + Bluetooth identifiers.

And yes, for me this means that I've graduated from just putting my phone in airplane mode when I enter a store (to avoid the trackers too many stores have started using) to keeping my phone in airplane mode at all times when I'm not at home.

But whether anyone else should do that depends on how sensitive they are to being tracked.

But I'm thinking that there may be a way to turn my car's body into a faraday cage to block signals from leaving the cabin. That would be a nice compromise.

stuaxo 55 days ago | | |

Ooh privacy mode for the car.

Though I imagine it will have to be after market since all the manufacturers want all the data all the time (and are probably too greedy to just wait until the end of a journey).