Tracking People Using Bluetooth

damdam writes "A Dutch guy seems to have set up a small network of bluetooth scanners. He has all the information logged to a central database and you can search it over the web. On his website it says "Some of these matches were only minutes apart. Therefore I could even calculate the approximate speed of someone moving from one location to another.". There are also some interesting statistics on his site showing traffic volume in his hometown (based on bluetooth signals) and he even lists popularity of certain Nokia phones. It's interesting to see how much information an individual can gather using old equipment."

Comments

Bluetooth Attacks

[nbannerman]

An excellent example of how the general public has no idea what technology is capable of. Imagine this chap was in the mood to cause a bit of disruption; I wonder how many of these phones would automatically accept a data transmission?

Case in point - a local pub automatically sends a simple java-based football game to your phone (or attempts to) via bluetooth when you enter. Some people have set their bluetooth to accept automatically and wonder what has happened when they discover the application sitting there a few days later.

Mildly amusing at times, but it does highlight the security risks associated with a system that can rely on users thinking about security to work properly.