[morkalork]

How safe is Bluetooth really? Cities has scanners used to track devices for monitoring road congestion, malls have scanners to measure foot traffic. I have to believe that anyone with access to stingray type of device can track Bluetooth as well.

[theoreticalmal]

Don’t both Apple and Android implement random BT MAC addresses specifically to prevent this kind of tracking?

[mmooss]

There could be other fingerprints besides MAC addresses.

[snypher]

How about my smartwatch, or my $29 earbuds? They are always conveniently near the 'random mac' and can be used to fingerprint.

[AlphaCerium]

don't bring them to a protest, simple :)

[grugagag]

Yeah, not sure many people are aware their beloved tech is spying on them. At this point face recognition and other tech can make it such that everyone is traced, filed and automatically sent summons of some sort.

[diggan]

Usually, protests are located in one somewhat easily defined area, until you cannot be there anymore or the goal has moved somewhere else. So then you need to get to another spot, this is the moment you disconnect your battery until you've arrived at the other place.

So yeah, they'd be able to say that "person A was at location B and later C", but not necessarily the way there or after/before those specific locations.

I agree that the safest is to assume they can definitely track you no matter what protocol/antenna you use, so you have to chose what moment it's OK to be tracked (like large groups).