It blows my mind how the Wi-Fi workflow seems to be inverted in ways that are atrocious for privacy and security.
There was a devious little company called WiFast that provided WiFi hotspots to local businesses. You'd have to authenticate with e-mail or Facebook to get access. The devious part is that they could then match your device's MAC address to your identity and track you as you moved throughout any city where they had merchants in their network. They built personalized profiles by spying on exactly where you moved throughout the day. This model is a big reason Apple started randomizing disconnected MAC addresses in newer versions of iOS.
I don't understand why devices are responsible for broadcasting by default in WiFi. Naively, it seems like the default case should have base stations broadcasting their IDs, and your device should only try to connect when it recognizes one. (This also seems like it would be more efficient for battery life.)
Obviously, hidden could SSIDs pose a problem, but does anyone know why WiFi devices broadcast so much data before they've even found a base station to pair with?
I guess it could have something to do with power consumption, at least when it comes to mobile devices. I imagine just pinging your surrounding from time to time until you get a reply could be a lot more efficient than actively scanning for known devices all the time.
There was a devious little company called WiFast that provided WiFi hotspots to local businesses. You'd have to authenticate with e-mail or Facebook to get access. The devious part is that they could then match your device's MAC address to your identity and track you as you moved throughout any city where they had merchants in their network. They built personalized profiles by spying on exactly where you moved throughout the day. This model is a big reason Apple started randomizing disconnected MAC addresses in newer versions of iOS.
I don't understand why devices are responsible for broadcasting by default in WiFi. Naively, it seems like the default case should have base stations broadcasting their IDs, and your device should only try to connect when it recognizes one. (This also seems like it would be more efficient for battery life.)
Obviously, hidden could SSIDs pose a problem, but does anyone know why WiFi devices broadcast so much data before they've even found a base station to pair with?