Here is some information for anyone worried about the possibility of being doxxed while broadcasting a particular SSID. Even if you were using a 2nd hand AP you purchased via cash in a dark alley, it would be very easy to dox someone using security cameras and triangulation. I used to do this type of stuff for a living and will try my best to put this in to layman's terms here. Getting your phone "hacked" (whatever that means) is the least of your concerns.
The image below shows how wireless phone carriers and anyone with access to their data roughly know where your phone is at any time via triangulation. The three dots in the circles below represent cell towers with overlapping coverage. Each tower can calculate how far a device is from itself using signal strength and time calculations. So the tower with the 1km circle knows a device is somewhere on the edge of the 1km diameter circle surrounding it. The remaining two towers also know the device is somewhere on the edge of the circles that surround them. Combining the data from the three towers, we know the device is located where the 3 circles intersect.
![[Image: E9_cell_triangulation.jpg]](http://www.emergency9.co.za/images/E9_cell_triangulation.jpg)
Turn your GPS off, turn it on, or stick your phone up your butt, it doesn't matter. If a tower is receiving a signal from a device, your carrier knows where you are. The accuracy improves with tower density in the area.
The same holds true for any modern enterprise wifi setup in use at schools, hospitals, stadiums, large office buildings, campgrounds etc. In this case, access points scattered throughout the campus act in the same fashion as the cell towers above.
Below is a screenshot from a vendor's location services interface. The admin needs only to import a floor plan (or google map aerial for outdoor installs) and drag and drop their access points to their corresponding installed locations on the map and, voila, you are being tracked. The center of the red areas are where the access points are mounted in the building. SSIDs, Mac addresses or custom labels appear for any device in range of the network so device manufacturer or device owner can easily be determined.
![[Image: aruba_airwave_3.png]](https://i1.wp.com/www.techtalkthai.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/aruba_airwave_3.png)
Here are a couple simple videos showing location tracking on wifi networks in an office building. Just search youtube for "wifi location tracking" if you want to see some cooler stuff.
The wireless administrator can see where any device is in real time and can also animate the map to see where the device has moved throughout any time frame recorded.
Any access point or hotspot not part of the system is also detected and can be displayed on the map as well. For example, an administrator could overlay a google maps aerial photo over his floorplan and the Burger King hotspot across the street would appear on the Burger King building on the map if BK was in range of multiple access points.
For our scenario, if someone with a groovily named hotspot walked on to a college campus, the admin could set an alarm to email them as soon as a certain device entered the network. They could then track and record that device throughout the building. They could then combine that data with security camera footage. So, as far as the campus' IT staff is concerned, you might as well be walking through the building holding a big sign with your hotspot SSID on it. In a prior life doing consulting, I tracked surgeon's locations in hospitals, tracked employee arrivals/departures, and routinely made handfuls of l33t haxors trying to run ddos attacks at colleges crap themselves by walking the deans and security over to them within a couple minutes of them turning on their laptops.
The same type of thing is probably being done to you if you work in any large office building. It is not limited to Wifi. Bluetooth, rfid or anything that emits a radio signal can be tracked. Your company can track company issued phones and badges throughout the building with ease if they want. I never carry a phone or badge when I'm in the office any more. I don't need some VP knowing how often I take a shit throughout the day.
Retailers will also tag items that are commonly shoplifted so they can track if something walks out of the building without payment.
I haven't been in this line of work for about a decade, but considering what I could do back then, I am sure things are way cheaper, more advanced and more devious now. Not meaning to be a downer, but I can envision if an entity had enough resources they could put in enough R&D to differentiate unique radiation emitted from individual human bodies and develop receivers sensitive enough to track said radiation to do location tracking without the target having any type of electronics on them. But that's another discussion.
I would say you are relatively safe if you were indoors at a small coffee shop as they are probably using just a single residential grade access point to provide wifi and they won't be wasting resources location tracking. I would be cautious around any big businesses, hospitals, stadiums or municipal free wifi offerings though.
So, be safe out there if you want to get a message across broadcasting a SSID. You would have some plausible deniability and in the US you "might" still have the 4th amendment protecting someone searching your person, but that is a big "might" any more.
Of course you aren't doing anything illegal so you could be safe with the authorities and most places won't actively be looking out for something like this, but you could encounter some admin with a stick up his ass who could easily make you a mark and take to social media with any information gathered.
Sleep tight
![[Image: smile.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/smile.gif)
(Also, sorry for my post on the previous page saying a using a used hotspot would be a fantastic idea. I wanted to see if anyone would take the bait and think they would be safe trying it.)
