Is there anything the IPad won't do?
Posted on 09/06/2010 6:32:19 AM PDT by ShadowAce
How amazing would it be if you could walk into McTaco King and order that mid-morning bacon taco meal with Mountain Dew Big Gulp from your mobile device? Just imagine… as you approach the restaurant, a menu pops up on your screen, the phone makes suggestions and helps you super-size your order, before you even set foot in the restaurant!
Is there anything the IPad won't do?
This advertiser’s wet dream is about to become reality, thanks to WPS (Wi-Fi Positioning System) infrastructure pioneered by CIA front company Skyhook (formerly Quarterscope) and currently being implemented by several other intelligence-connected companies, including Google, Apple, and Navizon (which is supplying data to Microsoft).
WPS geolocates wireless network devices using a database of known wireless access points, such as in coffee shops. Since at least 2004, WPS companies like Skyhook and Google have been war-driving for access point data. More about the technical aspects of this later.
How did you conclude that Skyhook is an intelligence front company?
Follow the money.
In 2008 former CIA director George Tenet became Managing Director of Allen & Company, an investment bank that provided funding for Skyhook’s WPS development and Google’s IPO (Initial Public Offering) in 2004, while he was still director of the CIA.
Skyhook was also funded by shadowy investment firm Alliance Capital. Frank Savage, Alliance Capital’s former board chairman, also served on the board of Lockheed Martin and Enron. Alliance was Enron’s largest shareholder.
Regardless of where the seed money came from, you can now buy this WPS data commercially. Intelligence agencies are putting a lot of effort into developing new tracking and identification technologies. Once they turn these technologies loose on society, the corporations exploit them, resulting in even more personal data being exchanged on private networks, which intelligence agencies can snoop on at will with their NSA Internet vacuum cleaners.
What exactly is WPS and how does it work?
Nearly every modern network connected device (phone, computer network card, cable modem, wireless router, bluetooth headset, etc), has a unique number called a MAC address (Media Access Control, not Apple) built in.
Please note that even if a mobile device doesn’t obtain an IP address when connecting to wi-fi, merely conducting a normal SSID (Session ID) scan can result in exchanging MAC addresses with access points. Wireless devices scan for access points automatically, if you leave the default settings, resulting in the mobile obtaining the MAC addres of the access point and potentially revealing its own MAC, depending on the type of scan.
MAC addresses are embedded in beacon frames, which are part of the hardware link between wireless devices. Under exactly what circumstances would MAC address be transmitted by the mobile during a SSID scan, rather than scanning passively? I don’t know, but we’ll put that idea on the back burner for now.
Here is the relevant thing you need to know about them: they are unique and can identify any network connected device, wired or wireless, bluetooth, 802.11, etc. The good news is you can change a device’s MAC address.† The bad news is, that doesn’t really matter because that new number can be immediately correlated with your voice print and other biometric signatures in realtime by the mobile device (see Iphone trojan link below)
WPS is not generally used alone for geolocation. Hybrid systems including GPS and cell triangulation are more commonly used to geolocate. the advantage of adding WPS is that you can be located anywhere there’s a known wi-fi, such as inside buildings. and you can be triangulated more accurately than cell + GPS using a large number of access points. How often have you been in an urban setting and seen 10 or 20 or more access points in the list? If the exact location of those access points are known, they can all be used together to triangulate the mobile more precisely.
So my phone trades MAC addresses with a restaurant’s Wi-Fi. They show me the daily specials. Aren’t there potential benefits to something like this?
Yes, there are many potential benefits to advertisers, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies who want to track masses of people. WPS is going to dovetail beautifully with the NSA’s Main Core and Apple’s new biometric Iphone trojan.
The only potential benefit to you is that you will not have to speak to the person behind the counter and your latté will be ready faster.
Intelligence agencies and DARPA are creating an AI surveillance cloud right before our eyes. Don’t think that because you don’t have an Iphone means the 3 people sitting around you haven’t had their trojans activated to identify your voice print and snoop on your conversation.
We already know how this ends. You better not be reading qbit.cc either or you’re going on their s*** list!
† But why is it that on Apple OSX 10.4 you can’t change the MAC address of your wireless card even as root? It simply fails with no error and keeps the original MAC address. I will find the answer to this question.
Thanks to Whenifhow for the heads up.
tinfoil hat time?
What if I don’t want them to know that I get double-pastrami on my sandwiches whenever I can?
Will they keep this info private or spill it to my wife (for a price?)
They need to name all this new location tech as “iPry.”
Why does the CIA want to know if I am eating fast food, and why does the CIA want to know what kind of fast food I am eating? Can I fool the CIA by order fast food from, say Taco Bell, but stiffing TB and going to Burger King instead? Will that be a crime? Who is going to monitor the fast-food eating habits of hundreds of millions of Americans? Will that have to be outsourced to India? Or what?
No. You will be put on the list of known health care abusers. Your rates will be raised until you cannot pay at which point you will be put on a mandatory public 0 option paid for with an extra tax to be levied against the rest of us. You need this technology. It is for your own good and that of the collective. This is community organizing at its best.
Perhaps they don't. This is just a beta program. Later on, they'll roll it out to keep track of everywhere everyone goes. They just mentioned fast food to keep people unconcerned.
George Tenet was the Managing Director of Allen and Co. WHILE HE WAS HEAD OF THE CIA???????? REALLY?? I CAN”T BELIEVE THAT!!!
The government has been using cell phone triangulation technology for almost 20 years. This article makes it sound like something new (ok, it’s wi-fi triangulation, but it’s the same idea). I think this is well known by most people. In movies you always see people tossing there cell phones or using “burners” when they want to elude the authorities.
“Just imagine… as you approach the restaurant, a menu pops up on your screen, the phone makes suggestions and helps you super-size your order, before you even set foot in the restaurant!”
So they’ve penetrated your mobile device to sell you a cockroach infested taco? Two crimes have been committed.
Yes, oh yes! I see that now.
And here, please take my gun away, too.
/s
Which is why I snort in derision when on a TV show they still have to get the bad guy to stay on the line for a minute. Can't they just look at the Caller ID? It makes me nuts to know that I can tell who's calling before I answer the phone but the cops have to figure out to keep the guy on the phone for a minute.
Why in the world would they want to know where I go? I go to: the gym, Whole Foods, Tyson’s Corner mall, Tyson’s Corner Galleria, the gas station, the dry cleaners, the spa, Wegman’s, the pet food palace, the bodega with the good limes and avocados, Vitamin Shoppe, the dog groomer, the dentist, K-Mart and Target, etc. How boring is that? And why would they want to know, and why would I care if they knew where I go? There, I just posted it on the Internet. I am still not getting this. I am sure the places I go are very similar to the places millions of people go. Why should they assign someone to track my errands? Where are those monitors going to come from? My monitor will be bored stiff and screaming for mercy in less than a week. That is how I will defeat them.
From what I’ve read, it’s possible to turn your phone on remotely and use it as a listening device. It’s definitely possible if the phone is already on. And, it’s legal - a judge issued a wire tap warrant back in 2006.
http://www.zdnet.com/news/fbi-taps-cell-phone-mic-as-eavesdropping-tool/150467
I think you can avert this by taking out the battery, but I wouldn’t swear to it.
Sometimes it’s actually comforting to me that I can’t get a decent signal inside my house!
It's for marketing. If they know your habits they can target you with specific ads.
And, this is a threat to my freedom and happiness how?
I didn't say it was. It's merely more information that, in the usual sense, shouldn't matter. The idea that all this information can be collected and, quite possibly, used against you in the future is what has me avoiding it.
That's the key question. MHO is that a kneejerk anti-tech reaction gets us nowhere.
They are going to collect the kind of information I listed above and use it against me? How? Am I going to be condemned for my excessive use of dry cleaning services and forced to iron shirts in penance? I’m still not getting it.
Okay, don't try anymore then.
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