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FCC Wants to Track Wireless
pin_gween writes "According to an article on ZDNet, the FCC wants the ability to track Wi-fi accessible phones like the ZyXel phone. The FCC's June report talked about several ways of realizing a caller's location: 'creating an "inventory" of every Wi-Fi access point in the United States, engaging in "mapping and triangulation" of those access points, compiling an "access jack inventory" for wired VoIP users, or even mandating that Net phones include GPS.'"
Um... VoIP has that E911 stuff, too.
We (enterprise) have a hard enough job tracking our own and our rogue points. And it's not like users ever want to have a mobile access point for presentations at non-wifi locations.
And what about every laptop that is automagically converted into a wireless bridge/access point with a few clicks?
On top of which, what is it really necessary to track every wap? To "triangulate" a connection they'd still need to trace the origins of a voip call over the IP connection to figure out where the call was made. A wifi access point map doesn't give you much if you haven't got a way of sourcing the call.
Guess you missed the news about the DEA seeking the arrest and extradiction of Marc Emery then ...
... and before anyone replies back with something like "but he was sending seeds to the U.S." ... the point is the tenticles of the U.S. extend to most ALL CANADIANS and to that of citizens of numerous other countries around the world - the DEA and other various U.S. law enforcement agencies actually have OFFICES and conduct investigations in Canada, and many other countries globally.
http://www.cannabisculture.com/
Emery is a CANADIAN citizen who has NOT been in the U.S. for over a decade, and operates his business from within Canada, including his web servers, etc.
Yet, despite all of that, the DEA has sought his extradiction
Point of my tirade is that moving may not help; in large part due to technology, such as being described in this Slashdot news item.
Ron
Turning off SSID broadcast doesn't make an AP undetectable. It just sets a flag saying "please do not report this AP to the user". It's trivial to find/create a wireless scanner that ignores this flag and reveals hidden networks. And on top of all that an AP can't possibly hide from a directional antenna on the 2.4Ghz band.
to insure successful
The FCC are in the insurance business now?
The word you want is ensure, not insure. One small letter. A world of different meaning. It's a common mistake.
Yeah I feel like a spelling Nazi today. So sue me.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Timothy Mcveigh, maybe?
But that's all I got, anyone else?
That site does have substance but also has a lot of FUD.
I understand that people have ideals to protect but he had a choice to NOT sell a product in the US that is illegal in the US. Just because you are not physically in the country at the time of the sale is not a free ticket.
You could also check out WiFiMaps.com. We've been doing this for a while, but what makes us different, is that our database is open to the public.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
First one that came to mind was this one: 6,759,960
It is a patent on using the known location of an access point. It's not specific to 911, but I think it would be covered.
"If they were just trying to locate 911 callers, this could easily be done with a caller-enabled location system." Yes, There is even an example of this type of thing in common usage. It is the "DSC Enabled Marine Radio" This is now required equipment on ships and some boats. Basically there is a big red botton, with a cover that you press in an emergency. The radio then makes a digital call that includes the location (from a connected GPS) and the ID of the radio's registered owner. They sell for "way cheap" as low as about $160 and that is for a 25W (not milliwatt) transmitter. For this application the phone would simply ASK the nearest WiFi gateway "where am I" no GPS needed. It would then forward that info One other litle fact. GPS does NOT work inside many buildings. If you built GPS into a phone it would not work much of the time. GPS needs a clear view iof the sky, sometimes even trees can obstruct the signal. My suggestion: A little red "emergency" button that can auto dial 911 and forward location info. Cost maybe a buck?