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Android Leaks Location Data Via Wi-Fi

Posted by Soulskill on from the we-all-know-about-your-addiction-to-krispy-kreme dept.

Bismillah writes: The Preferred Network Offload feature in Android extends battery life, but it also leaks location data, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. What's more, the same flaw is found in Apple OS X and Windows 7. "This location history comes in the form of the names of wireless networks your phone has previously connected to. These frequently identify places you've been, including homes ('Tom’s Wi-Fi'), workplaces ('Company XYZ office net'), churches and political offices ('County Party HQ'), small businesses ('Toulouse Lautrec's house of ill-repute'), and travel destinations ('Tehran Airport wifi'). This data is arguably more dangerous than that leaked in previous location data scandals because it clearly denotes in human language places that you've spent enough time to use the Wi-Fi."

2 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Free Wifi by AndyCanfield · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here in Thailand / Laos I have recently seen massage parlor signs advertising "Free Wifi". You get in a room with a beautiful lady and she rubs her hands all over your body. Why would you want to check your e-mail? And certainly you would not "Exotic Massage" to show up in your wifi list. But remember that phones are like that. I manually checked my wife's call history to see if she had telephoned my girlfriend.

  2. Droid does what iDon't: SSID spotting by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For fun, grab an Android app called WifiCollector.

    Or MozStumbler, from the makers of Firefox.

    But if you're looking for something similar on iOS, you won't find anything on the App Store because there's no public API to log seen SSIDs on iOS. Instead of making a public API, Apple instead just decided to blacklist the entire category of applications in March 2010.