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Free Municipal Wi-Fi May Be the Next Front In the War Against Privacy (theintercept.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the you're-the-product dept.

TuballoyThunder writes: According to The Intercept, it appears that the LinkNYC free Wi-Fi might be designed to track users. This and other concerns were raised during a 2015 discussion on Slashdot. While many people are comfortable in trading their privacy for ostensibly free services, it is disheartening when municipalities collaborate with business to make it happen. "In May of this year, Charles Meyers, an undergraduate at New York City College of Technology, came across folders in LinkNYC's public library on GitHub, a platform for managing files and software, that appear to raise further questions about location tracking and the platform's protection of its users' data," reports The Intercept. "Meyers made copies of the codebases in question -- 'LinkNYC Mobile Observation' and 'RxLocation' -- and shared both folders with The Intercept."

Meyers says the "LinkNYC Mobile Observation" code collects the user's longitude and latitude, browser type, OS, device type, device identifiers, and full URL clickstreams (including data and time) and "aggregates this information into a database," the report says. Meyer's believes the company is interested in tracking the location of Wi-Fi users in real time. "If such code were run on a mobile app or kiosk, he said, the company would be able to make advertisements available in real time based on where and who someone was, and that this would constitute a potential violation of the company's privacy policy," reports The Intercept.

Following the revelations, LinkNYC said the code was never intended to be released and was part of a longer-term R&D process. "In this instance, David Mitchell, Intersection's CTO, told the Intercept in an email. "Intersection was prototyping and testing some ideas internally, using employee data only, and mistakenly made source code public on Github. This code is not in use on the LinkNYC network." [Intersection is the "key player" in CityBridge, "a chameleon-like consortium of private companies" that New York City contracted to turn the city's payphone booth network into Wi-Fi-enabled kiosks.]

39 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. by who by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    the question has never been if your privacy is invaded. the question is only who do you prefer to invade your privacy

    1. Re:by who by commodore64_love · · Score: 2

      I'd prefer a private entity like Google or Apple, than a government entity that has police & soldiers & jails to make your life miserable.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  2. They can track me all they want... by AmazingRuss · · Score: 1

    ... I'll bore the tits off 'em.

    1. Re:They can track me all they want... by Spamalope · · Score: 2

      and when they need a scapegoat they'll pick one from the list of suckers in the area at the time...

    2. Re: They can track me all they want... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Do you REALLY feel that's it's a-okay for your every movement, every time you take a shit, to be tracked by the Stasi plus every two-bit marketing hustler in town?

      If so, my brother, you are a pathetic excuse for a man.

      And if not - then stop making lame apologies for the surveillance state.

    3. Re:They can track me all they want... by antdude · · Score: 1

      Boobies, birds, or both? :P

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  3. Yeah I think I played that computer game... by Noishkel · · Score: 1

    Wasn't it called Watch_Dogs? The entire city it was set in (Chicago, I think) was all connected by a giant city owned Wi-Fi network that everyone connected to.

    Well being that was only a computer game I'm sure there's no way that it could ever be abused by an authoritarian city government... like one that already has a pretty piss poor track record of respecting people's rights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  4. Sign now, pay later. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Research project . . . yeah right.

    Get people to sign conditions of use now - then change the underlying infrastructure to abuse the users who have already signed. They already agreed right.

    If people even read facebooks terms before Cambridge Analytica, they probably never envisaged the data being used that way. Even fully informed they would have signed, because they could not imagine the future abuses.

    They got caught this time - so this might not progress, not in it's current form.

    Privacy should not be about complying with the letter of the law, but the intent. Present the issue before a jury of ordinary people - and if they think the behavior was unreasonable - then big fines.

    1. Re:Sign now, pay later. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      A right to privacy is a niche human concept. Nature does not have any use for this and does not require it. You have no privacy except for that which you are able to carve out for yourself - do not expect others to do it for you or respect yours.

      Nature has plenty of privacy - look for all the animals hiding from predators, for example. Surveillance, or for that matter corporations, are niche human concepts. Concepts that nature doesn't have and doesn't need. Privacy can be had through legislation. Pick your country according to taste, or at least the right politicians.

    2. Re:Sign now, pay later. by mikael · · Score: 2

      Prairie dogs maintain lookouts and give out warning calls if they see a predator. Some birds of prey will hover above a field for hours in order to catch a rabbit, rat or other critter.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  5. Anyone want to do the work by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    to figure out which ISP funded this story? And I'd much rather have my info in the hands of my democratically elected government than a mega corporation that I have zero say in unless I'm a top shareholder.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Anyone want to do the work by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      With the difference that in a working democracy, you could actually get rid of the government and install a new one. You'd have to get a working democracy first, granted, but that's at least an option you don't have with corporations.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Anyone want to do the work by DaMattster · · Score: 1

      to figure out which ISP funded this story? And I'd much rather have my info in the hands of my democratically elected government than a mega corporation that I have zero say in unless I'm a top shareholder.

      Not at all! Government abuse of data is a whole lot more rampant than the private sector. If you believe a "democratically elected government" is safer with your info then I have a bridge to sell you.

    3. Re:Anyone want to do the work by commodore64_love · · Score: 2

      > I'd much rather have my info in the hands [Donald Trump] than a mega corporation

      Fixed that for you. I figure that will change your mind of who you trust. BTW the Russian government is ALSO "democratically elected" so I could have substituted "Vladimir Putin" in there instead. Or possibly the EU president "Jean-Claude Juncker"

      I wouldn't trust any of these three with my data, especially since they command massive armies to arrest you at will. (Reference: the prison camps that President Roosevelt created to hold undesirable citizens.)

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  6. You do know that in the absence of "gov't" by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    those corporate entities won't just stay home eating cookies. They'll form power structures of their own that are just like governments but without all that pesky "democracy" stuff to get in the way of profits and whatever little project strikes the CEO's fancy (Jeff Bezos is spending his $260 million/day on space travel, which would be peachy if I wasn't paying tax dollars to feed his underpaid/overworked staff)

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:You do know that in the absence of "gov't" by DaMattster · · Score: 1

      those corporate entities won't just stay home eating cookies. They'll form power structures of their own that are just like governments but without all that pesky "democracy" stuff to get in the way of profits and whatever little project strikes the CEO's fancy (Jeff Bezos is spending his $260 million/day on space travel, which would be peachy if I wasn't paying tax dollars to feed his underpaid/overworked staff)

      Well, maybe Anarcho-Communism would be a whole lot better!

    2. Re:You do know that in the absence of "gov't" by commodore64_love · · Score: 3

      > corporations will form power structures of their own that are just like governments but without all that pesky "democracy" stuff

      And I thought I was cynical :-o During the last 100 years (approximately 1910 to 2010) governments have killed over 100 million of their OWN citizens. Not foreign citizens but their own people. 100,000,000+ acts of genocide.

      - How many citizens have corporations deliberately killed with gas chambers, firing squads, mass extermination? 10? 20? So essentially zero compared to 100,000,000.

      I fear government more than corporations, and history backs me up. BTW you say corps are not democratic, but they have to answer to their customers (the voters). Your Dollars are your votes, and you vote for corporations you like when you buy a product. And do not vote for corporations you dislike, like Cheatwagen.

      - Note: I listed Volkswagen because I voted for them in 2012 by buying a new Diesel Beetle, and then I learned they LIED to me and committed a CRIME against the government (both US and EU). So I am correcting my error and boycotting Volkswagen for the next 40 years, until the current generation of managers/engineers is no longer at the company.

      Our dollars and euros are our votes for/against corporations.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  7. That war is over. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There is no more "war on privacy".

    There WAS such a war, but it is over now. The privacy advocates lost. The teeming Facebook multitudes who use gmail, run every tracking javascript shoveled onto their machine, and cheerfully run calculator apps which scrape their address books and forward to IP's in China won.

    There is no more privacy. You lost. Sorry.

    1. Re:That war is over. by commodore64_love · · Score: 2

      Insightful.

      BTW pretty much all my data on facebook is lies. I was not born April Fools Day and I don't work for the Babylon5 Interstellar Alliance. I abandoned Gmail and switched to Outlook, and then I quit google search to use startpage.com instead. (Also my phone is NOT a google phone, so they can't follow me everywhere I go.)

      Not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction.... don't put all your data in the same basket. (Or something.)

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  8. Use a random MAC address. by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

    Use a random MAC address and create a script that passes a random email address to the captive authentication portal. LinkNYC doesn't check validity of email addresses used in their authentication portal, so you can use any random gibberish ending in a TLD. No valid account or info needed.

    1. Re:Use a random MAC address. by tummetott · · Score: 1

      how to use a random MAC address this on fedora: https://fedoramagazine.org/ran...

  9. Shock. LinkNYC == Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Intersection was formed by the acquisition of Control Group and Titan by a group of investors led by Sidewalk Labs. Sidewalk Labs is owned by... Alphabet. The CTO is Craig Nevill-Manning a former Google employee (and the CEO is Dan Doctoroff... a buddy of Michael Bloomberg who was in his administration and served as CEO of Bloomberg until Bloomberg took back the reigns).

    The whole thing is a Google project setup not to look like a Google project.

  10. My business offers 100% free, shit-free wi-fi by DogDude · · Score: 1

    My business offers the public 100% free, untracked wi-fi. I think it's my moral obligation to offer a relatively untraceable public Internet connection.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
  11. Re:"War against privacy" by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    I wish they'd declare war on privacy. Considering how effective the other wars on... were, from drugs to terrorism, it would essentially mean we get more privacy.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  12. Prognostication by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am usually loath to spout off about future trends. Basically because it's so easy to get one thing wrong which causes the whole to be shot down.

    But keep this in mind for the next decade or so, and when you see things turn out like this, remember you read it somewhere.

    I see like never before in my lifetime or the recent past a concerted effort to push the world in a certain direction it would not be going otherwise. I fear that the end result of this is to create a world population that is grey and identityless and is simply a good source of taxes and labor, similar to how a flock of sheep is a good source of wool, and can be moved, sold, bred, and culled at the whim of the owner.

    Tech being developed like ubiquitous surveillance, mammoth data centers, and application of AI, is starting to make the treating of the human population of Earth like large herds of chattel feasible.

    All the different trends you've been seeing developing since 9/11 play into it: muslims against the west, China vs USA, religion vs secularism, feminists against males, the absolutely vileness that political debate has stooped to in the US and Europe (and elsewhere), forced immigration to and assimilation in Europe, racial division like never before, economic trends, rise of supernational governing bodies and regional blocks, change of politics to become more autocratic, the erosion of private ownership, free speech, and privacy itself. The ironic twist is that most of us stand one one side or the other on at least one of these issues, feeling extremely righteous and virtuous about it, having no compunction even wishing for, or calling for the death of, opposing sides.

    Most will probably hail the new overlords that will put an end to this emerging chaos by application of autocratic force. But you or the next generation will probably be told what work to do and how much, what to be entertained by, where to live, what to wear, whom to breed with and how much, what language to speak, what to worship, when to die, etc. And take heart, it won't be that dystopic, most will even like it...

  13. should we believe them? by sad_ · · Score: 1

    should we take their word for it and believe them, there isn't really a way to find out.
    when in doubt, it's always better to presume the worst.

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
  14. VPN by Karmashock · · Score: 2

    Anyone that cares can use a VPN and probably should be using a VPN anyway. There are VPNs selling subscriptions for less than a dollar a month.

    Just get a VPN and move on.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    1. Re:VPN by DaMattster · · Score: 4, Informative

      Anyone that cares can use a VPN and probably should be using a VPN anyway. There are VPNs selling subscriptions for less than a dollar a month.

      Just get a VPN and move on.

      I am starting to notice that at some public WiFi hotspots, the high port numbers are being blocked precisely to prevent things like this from happening. Of course they claim it is for the "safety" of the network but we know that's not the *real* reason.

    2. Re:VPN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "Meyers says the "LinkNYC Mobile Observation" code collects the user's longitude and latitude, browser type, OS, device type, device identifiers, and full URL clickstreams (including data and time)"

      so the vpn might mask the urls and the browser type, but it really isnt going to stop the rest as that is typically tracked through the connection its self.

    3. Re:VPN by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      I would guess it's less about VPNs than about stopping people running bittorrent.

    4. Re:VPN by mea2214 · · Score: 1

      Exactly, which is why I block all those ports on my open wifi. The determined can still work around it but it deters the casual bittorrent user.

    5. Re:VPN by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      They'll know which device connected at which time... where that device is... but they won't know what you're doing on it.

      The big problem with tracking everyone is that you don't want to track everyone. You want to track specific subsets of the population and classify those to create useful patterns.

      Absent that... the tracking isn't useful.

      What is more, theoretically, the identifiers could be altered in software. I'm fairly certain you can do it with a rooted phone already.

      But the real point is that the tech is there to do it if you want to do it.

      If you don't care, then you don't care.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    6. Re:VPN by Karmashock · · Score: 2

      That will just cause an arm's race between the Wifi's block list and the VPN's aggressiveness.

      The banning of VPNs in places like China and Russia is great for the industry because it will force people that need vpns to come up with tech that the Russians and chinese will neither stop nor even detect.

      And that can be applied generally there after.

      The tech is inherently uncontrollable. It is hubris on the part of the networks to think they can stop connections from occurring.

      But that's fine. I like their hubris. It means they'll make more mistakes.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  15. Re:Commercial ISPs track you too by Bruinwar · · Score: 1

    Believe it.

    Comcrap, AT&T, Verizon & all the rest are scooping up everything. All of it.

    --
    SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT
  16. VPN might be a possibility by DaMattster · · Score: 1

    It might be possible to use a VPN like OpenVPN to thwart this tracking but I'll bet the LinkNYC folks that about people doing it and probably block high port numbers or some other shady shit.

  17. MAC Spoofing? by sycodon · · Score: 1

    Is there no way to jack with the MAC address when connecting to WiFi?

    It may be embedded in the hardware somehow, but it has to go through software to connect to the wifi.

    THAT is a hack I'd pay money for...a new MAC address every time a phone connects to WiFi

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re: MAC Spoofing? by LordWabbit2 · · Score: 2

      There is an app for that, or supposedly you can do it manually, but I get access denied when I try, so despite what the article says you probably need a rooted phone. https://www.techpluto.com/how-...

      --
      There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
    2. Re:MAC Spoofing? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      It's really easy on a regular PC or laptop - remember that sending a MAC other than the one in the card is required for transparent bridging or for hosting virtual machines. On a phone, you'd need to root/jailbreak it.

  18. If it is free..... by gbkersey · · Score: 1

    ....you are the product