[MichaelApproved]

Could it be used as a sort of fingerprint to identify phones? I'm imagining using a scanner to create a list of phones in the area. You walk through the halls of congress to compile a list of devices. Do this every few days or over the course of a month, to eliminate visitors.

Now that you have your fingerprint, you can leave a few scanners around where you're trying to track the congressmen. IE, if you want to blackmail, put it around strip clubs.

Seems like a major security hole to me.

[victorvation]

That's definitely possible. There are already a few startups that use the same method to track analytics and repeat customers.

[adestefan]

iOS 8 somewhat mitigates this through using random MAC addresses when scanning

[breakall]

> somewhat

Due to the extremely narrow circumstances [1] under which the MAC address randomization is actually used, the feature may as well not exist.

[1] http://blog.airtightnetworks.com/ios8-mac-randomgate/