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Hackers Can Track Subway Riders' Movements By Smartphone Accelerometer

Posted by samzenpus on from the all-the-better-to-follow-you-with dept.

Patrick O'Neill writes: Tens of millions of daily subway riders around the world can be tracked through their smartphones by a new attack, according to research from China's Nanjing University. The new attack even works underground and doesn't utilize GPS or cell networks. Instead, the attacker steals data from a phone's accelerometer. Because each subway in the world has a unique movement fingerprint, the phone's motion sensor can give away a person's daily movements with up to 92% accuracy.

1 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Good Luck by dohzer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here in Melbourne, Australia our train system has a unique movement footprint.
    Accellerating and breaking for no reason, trains that skip stations or terminate at random ones; this baby's got it all. Good luck decoding the position from that.