[Cialug] _nomap for wireless networks

[Barry Von Ahsen]

On 11/15/2011 11:33 AM, Todd Walton wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 8:57 AM, Jonathan A. Kollasch
> <jakllsch at kollasch.net>  wrote:
>> Lame, I don't want to change my ESSID to opt out.  It should be a opt-in
>> sort of thing.  And the ESSID is about the lamest way to do it anyway.
>> Not that there's a decent way to do it.  They really shouldn't be doing
>> it at all.
>
> Well, that seems to be the consensus on this thread, but I don't
> understand why.  What's the big deal?

I'd come from the other direction and ask why they need it

here's a totally theoretical situation, I'm just brainstorming, I may be 
completely wrong here

many devices will ping for known good SSIDs before scanning for new 
ones, and there are lots of stories around of darker gray hats sitting 
in public areas broadcasting linksys, att, VZWMiFi, etc. and proxying 
the data

so potentially, if I had a large (multi-)national chain of fast food 
restaurants or coffee bars that offered free wifi, and you have a unique 
SSID at home, I could potentially record what you're looking for in your 
initial wireless requests, and track your movements and correlate them. 
  of course, a dozen other companies are already doing the same based on 
the CC you used to pay for that latte, and browser cookie companies are 
tracking your requests via persistent flash cookies, so this would just 
be fuel for the fire :)


-barry