We’re not sure if this is art, anti-snooping guerilla warfare, or just a cheeky hack, however we do understand that we like it! [Jasper van Loenen]’s Linger keeps the SSIDs that your cell phone (for example) spits out whenever it’s not linked to a WiFi network, as well as replays them after you’re gone.

Some retail stores as well as other shady characters use MAC addresses and/or the special collection of SSIDs that your phone submits in probe requests to fingerprint you as well as track your movement, either with their specific store or across stores that share a tracking provider. Did you understand that you were getting into this when you enabled “location services”? Did the tracking firms ask you if that was ok? Of program not. What are you going to do about it?

Linger replays the probe requests of people who have already moved on, making it appear to these systems as if nobody ever leaves. Under the hood, it’s a Raspberry Pi Zero, two WiFi dongles, as well as some basic Python software application that stores probe requests in a database. There’s likewise a seven-segment screen to suggest exactly how lots of different probe-request profiles Linger has seen. We’re not sure the cost point on this gadget is rather down to “throwie” level, however we’d like to see a few of these installed in the regional mall. 

The truth that your smartphone leaks data that’s able to fingerprint as well as track you must be old news to our crowd. however don’t just take our word for it, try it out yourself! With one Raspberry Pi in your backpack, you might log all the signals around you.  Add a few a lot more nodes as well as you might even try to triangulate your phone within your own home. just since it’s a weird invasion of privacy doesn’t indicate it’s out of the realm of the diy hacker.