XPost: misc.phone.mobile.iphone, alt.comp.os.windows-10, comp.mobile.android   
   From: ithinkiam@gmail.com   
      
   Marian  wrote:   
   > Carlos E.R. wrote:   
   >>> But the fact is you can be tracked anywhere in the world if you use the   
   >>> same router, which very often people who have moved will easily do.   
   >>   
   >> Considering that here the router is often provided by the Telco, when   
   >> you move you have to hand over the old router, and get a new one with   
   >> the new contract at the new destination.   
   >   
   > I agree with anyone, no matter who they are, who posits a sensibly logical   
   > statement, where I would heartily agree with you that if you hand back the   
   > router to the telco, then you can't be tracked by subsequent use of it.   
   >   
   > However...   
   >   
   > The argument made by the security researchers is valid that they tracked   
   > "longitudinal" movements over the course of a year using Apple WPS.   
   >    
      
   Unfortunately, they give almost no details on what this year-long   
   longitudinal study was. Unlike their month-long study which was sampled   
   daily.   
      
   They also make reference to a six-month study for mobile routers with no   
   specific details.   
      
   In their month-long they find that 15% of APs were "unstable" or   
   disappeared, 0.06% moved more than 1km and the median distance travelled   
   was 4km. That means 50% of APs 4km or less over the month.   
      
   Am obvious thing they should have done was to remove the mobile routers   
   from the global analysis. Makes interpretation harder.   
      
   Unlike you they acknowledge the APs aren't people, despite the poor   
   grammar.   
      
   "While there is not necessarily a 1-to-1 relationship   
   between Wi-Fi routers and users, home routers typically only have several."   
      
   > The researchers argue that Apple makes it trivial to collect millions of   
   > router locations which they can track on a massive scale because there are   
   > no security controls whatsoever (not even a login!) for the Apple WPS db.   
      
   Yeah, that's a daft design decision.   
      
   > It doesn't take much of an imagination to understand how dangerous that is.   
      
   Likewise an overactive imagination can catastrophise. A sense of   
   proportionality is useful, here.   
      
   > If Apple honored the "_nomap" & the "hidden SSID" it wouldn't be so bad.   
   > But Apple clearly does not honor their own rules (which I can prove).   
      
   You have n=1. That's barely an anecdote.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)