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Bluetooth Surveillance Tested In the UK

Posted by kdawson on from the turn-the-darn-thing-off dept.

KentuckyFC writes "If you live in the city of Bath in the UK and carry a Bluetooth-enabled device, your movements may have been secretly monitored in an experiment designed to test surveillance techniques in prisons. Researchers from Bath University recorded the movements of 10,000 Bluetooth-enabled devices during their 6-month trial. They say the experiment was a test of a technique for monitoring the interactions between prisoners in jail that could be used to work out which inmates have become closely associated. The work was prompted by revelations that the Madrid train bombers who devastated the city in 2004 first met in a Spanish prison (abstract)."

5 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. mandatory bluetooth collars next??? by advocate_one · · Score: 2, Insightful

    expect civil liberties to really hit the roof over this one... whatever happened to the right of free association?

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
  2. I suspect the guards. by khasim · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This project is going to discover that the GUARDS have contact with prisoners that go on to commit crimes.

    Prisoner-A and Prisoner-B commit a terrorist act of child pornography and BOTH of those prisoners will have had contact with Guard-C in Prison-D. Therefore, every other prisoner who had contact with Guard-C is a potential terrorist child pornographer.

    Really. That's all that you're going to find from this. This is a waste of money.

  3. That explanation smells like bullshit by Reality+Master+201 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Tracking prisoners? With Bluetooth devices? Horseshit.

    RFID is a far better choice - it's passive (no batteries) and it's cheap. I bet the purpose of Bluetooth tracking is to track non-imprisoned people.

    1. Re:That explanation smells like bullshit by wattrlz · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you're going to broadcast your music, your cell phone conversations, and whatever other data people transfer by bluetooth to anyone in a ten meter radius I don't see why you should be so up in arms about someone happening to receive and record that information.

    2. Re:That explanation smells like bullshit by BlueshiftVFX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you're going to broadcast your television programs, and whatever other data people transfer by satellite to anyone in the whole continent I don't see why you should be so up in arms about someone happening to receive and record that information.

      The problem is the Corporations don't like it and they have more power then a bunch of un-herded sheep. Together the sheep have the power but with so many rumours and misinformation it's easier to divide and conquer them then the few CEOs that hold all the power of the corporations.

      I do agree though this is horse shit fluffed up and polished to appeal to the sheep.