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Austin Airport Tracks Cell Phones To Measure Security Line Wait
jfruh writes If you get into the TSA security line at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, you'll see monitors telling you how long your wait will be — and if you have a phone with Wi-Fi enabled, you're helping the airport come up with that number. A system implemented by Cisco tracks the MAC addresses of phones searching for Wi-Fi networks and sees how long it takes those phones to traverse the line, giving a sense of how quickly things are moving. While this is useful information to have, the privacy implications are a bit unsettling.
Me thinks the transit time is the plausible excuse here. They really want to know who is going where so that if they nab you for some 'offense' then they have a history of all the places you were at and security footage as well. 'Free' wifi that really isn't free if you consider the implications.
Of course, there are other instances where Governments have been rather crass about it:
A few years ago I was transiting at Singapore's Changi Airport. They had free WiFi, but subject to me giving them the MAC address of all my devices, the flight I had arrived on and they wanted to record my Passport number as well. The girl behind the counter said, with a big smile and fluttering eyes, everyone gives us those details and the WiFi is really good.
DING! Get that man, or woman, a prize! I think "outrage fatigue" is a very important piece of the pie as far as DHS and taking away our privacy goes. The more fatigue the more they can take away.