Connecting To Unsecured Bluetooth Car Systems To Monitor Traffic Flow

Posted by Unknown on Monday October 21, 2013 @05:17AM from the drive-slowly-for-maximum-confusion dept.

New submitter TheTerseOne writes "The Columbian, the local newspaper of Vancouver (not BC), Washington (not DC) is reporting that local county traffic officials plan on spending $540k of government money to monitor traffic by connecting to vehicles' Bluetooth systems (whose owners/drivers have left them discoverable). The county claims that, although this sounds 'creepy' and 'like Big Brother,' there is no cause for concern. The specific brand of the system is not mentioned, but similar systems have already been the subject of security alerts." County officials note that they are stripping out part of the MAC, and the system is intentionally designed not to be useful for law enforcement to locate specific devices.

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Slight misrepresentation... by Shoten · 2013-10-21 05:41 · Score: 5, Insightful

It should be noted that they are not "connecting" to these devices, just cataloging the ones which announce their own presence. It's pretty fricking passive.

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