New study finds Wi-Fi routers can identify people without devices
Turns out, Wi-Fi routers can actually identify people nearby, even if you're not carrying a phone or laptop.
A new study found that unencrypted signals bouncing between routers and devices create radio images that are surprisingly accurate.
This means that if you regularly pass by a cafe's Wi-Fi, you could be identified there without noticing it and be recognized later, raising some big privacy questions.
Researchers push for next-generation Wi-Fi protections
Researchers tested this on 197 people and found the system could pick them out almost perfectly.
Professor Thorsten Strufe called it, "The technology is powerful, but at the same time entails risks to our fundamental rights, especially to privacy," while co-researcher Julian Todt warned that anyone near public Wi-Fi could be tracked without knowing it.
The team is now pushing for stronger privacy protections in the next generation of Wi-Fi tech.