Is there a way to prevent this data from being used? Can I somehow not broadcast certain data over wifi or otherwise keep google and apple from using my wifi metadata without my consent?
> But in late March 2024, Apple quietly tweaked its privacy policy, allowing people to opt out of having the location of their wireless access points collected and shared by Apple — by appending “_nomap” to the end of the Wi-Fi access point’s name (SSID).
I find that incredibly irksome. I'm glad they provide an opt-out mechanism, but strongly dislike that it requires me to give my Wi-Fi network an ugly name. And what if 2 vendors have different opt-out strings such that I can't choose to stay out of, say, Apple and Google's DBs at the same time?
I feel you and agree, but there's a good argument to be made that BSSIDs are "public information".
It's a slippery slope to walk trying to regulate that one. One example: "No public citizen, you are not allowed to monitor our frequencies without paying our corporation a subscription fee."
I understand. I have a ham radio license and I can listen in to all sorts of things sent out into the public airwaves. That's what broadcasting is.
At the same time, I write a blog for other humans to read. I'm annoyed that some companies are likely scraping it to train their LLMs. Beyond my annoyance, I don't know how far I'd want to go toward making it possible for humans to consume it but not AIs. The legal cures for that seem like they'd be worse than the disease.
I am thinking of starting a competing product that uses wifi APs for geo location instead of GPS satellites. I want to be a more customer friendly business than google or apple though, it'll only be opt-in. All you have to do to indicate that you have opted-in is to append "_nomap" to your AP name. /s
If I understand correctly, the research was only possible because they were able to leverage the Google and apple APIs against each other. The lesson I get from this is these companies shouldn't behave like they exist in a vacuum and when exposing data or forcing global configuration (like the AP name) they need to be more careful.
But most people don’t intentionally “broadcast their SSID in the open”. They just want to surf wirelessly in their homes with as little hassle as possible.
Until there’s technology that lets you do that easily I think this definitely violates privacy. Especially if unique information like MAC addresses is collect, and not only the Wi-Fi name.
I wonder how MAC addresses are treated under GDPR since e.g. IP addresses are considered personal information.
When a consumer can see their neighbors' networks' SSIDs being broadcast on their own pocket computer, but somehow doesn't think that anyone else can see their own network's SSID, then:
That's magical thinking.
Magical thinking is not a privacy problem. Magical thinking is a cognition problem.
There's a surefire way to prevent this kind of thing forever: Stop broadcasting your data on the air for anyone to hear, and others will stop being able to listen to it.
Google also supports this scheme: https://support.google.com/maps/answer/1725632
Wigle.net, too: https://wigle.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2330
Would I trust any of this? No.