We’ve all gotten used to the idea that our smartphones track us. But what if you could be identified and tracked through WiFi signals even when you’re not carrying any device at all?
According to a recent report by Cybernews, recent research from Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has uncovered a privacy concern where WiFi networks can now potentially identify people based solely on how their bodies interact with radio waves.
How Does WiFi “See” You?
The technology works similar to how a camera captures images, except instead of light waves, it uses WiFi radio waves.
WiFi routers and connected devices constantly exchange small data packets called “beamforming feedback” signals to optimize connections. The catch? These signals are unencrypted and can be intercepted by anyone within range.
When someone moves through a WiFi-enabled space, their body disrupts these radio waves. By analyzing these disruptions with machine learning, researchers can reconstruct images showing people’s shapes, positions and movements, essentially turning radio signals into a form of vision.
Professor Thorsten Strufe from KIT’s Institute of Information Security and Dependability explains that this approach transforms radio waves into images of surroundings and the people within them, much like how traditional cameras work with light.
Startling Accuracy
Once trained, the system can identify specific individuals with nearly 100% accuracy, regardless of their stance, gait, or position. You don’t even need to connect to the network or carry a phone, simply walking past a coffee shop or near a home router could create a trackable digital footprint.
While CCTV cameras remain the most common surveillance tool, WiFi networks have a distinct advantage in that they are everywhere. Every home, office, store, and public space has routers broadcasting signals through walls and windows. Public authorities, businesses, or malicious actors with access to the right data could identify and track people without visible cameras or personal devices.
The KIT research team is calling on regulators and developers to build privacy protections directly into the next major WiFi standard, IEEE 802.11bf, before this capability becomes widespread.
Learn more including additional details of this research and its implications in Cybernews’ official post here.
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