Government Bluetooth snooping and your car speed discovered!

[floodhound2]

I made a circuit that snoops in on Blue Tooth signals as a joke here at my office. Initially I was going to use the circuit to hack into a buddy's wireless network as I seen this in a movie a while back. It sounded piratical and indeed I got it to work (somewhat) yet I never knew what I was about to discover until my wife drove me home one day. While driving home I was playing with my circuit and I kept getting a strong signal on the freeway in a remote area. What the hell I thought and repeated this over more and more driving areas.

Come to find out after a few days of doing the same thing and some google searches that some Government Agencies use Blue tooth to detect how fast you are driving on the roads.

The idea is simple as well as sneaky, dam government. They use your blue tooth signal (typically from a cell phone) at one fixed point then waits untill you reach the second point to calculate your speed.

No telling what other information is also collected.

[joebox]

Would that be considered breaking a law?

[floodhound2]

Could you be more specific? I am not clear if you think my device is breaking the law or the government is.

I suppose its the undefined "line" that we all come close to while hacking. Some people think hacking is wrong others think it is not. An example:

If you leave your wallet on a table and I find it, am I stealing or is that your fault for leaving it on the table in first place?

In my eyes I have not broken any laws since the Bluetooth devices are not secure so, who fault is it if I look inside the wallet?

In the governments eyes and my opinion, thanks to George Bush's Patriot laws its there right to peek in on anything they declare fit. I am opposed to this law for the record!

[DNR]

Well the tracking of a vehicle's bluetooth is tracking by MAC address of the device. So instead of recording your plate number, it can scan for your bluetooth ID at toll booths. They do write tickets based on time elapsed between toll stations. We usually pull over before the next toll to burn off the time we made by speeding.

Also - it is almost standard now for local police to download your vehicle's onboard computer data in the event of a crash. It is considered evidence in speed, braking, driving attitude for the last 10 miles, etc. they just plug in at the terminal under the dashboard.

Don't forget wheel air pressure sensors - they are wireless devices and have been detected to leak data and you can even send data to the sensor's computer if you are close to the vehicle. You can fool some vehicles into shutting off the engine - if you make it think it is running on 4 flats...

DNR

[joebox]

Could you be more specific? I am not clear if you think my device is breaking the law or the government is.

I suppose its the undefined "line" that we all come close to while hacking. Some people think hacking is wrong others think it is not. An example:

If you leave your wallet on a table and I find it, am I stealing or is that your fault for leaving it on the table in first place?

In my eyes I have not broken any laws since the Bluetooth devices are not secure so, who fault is it if I look inside the wallet?

In the governments eyes and my opinion, thanks to George Bush's Patriot laws its there right to peek in on anything they declare fit. I am opposed to this law for the record!

In regards to the government. I believe that would be considered breaking and entering? Warrant in need?

[joebox]

I recently added a signal blocking bag specifically for this issue. By Buying you, decrease your speeding tickets, save money from not getting speeding tickets and protect your phones security. http://chattunnel.com/store/index.php?m ... ucts_id=14" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I will discount the price only for suck-o members. PM me

[floodhound2]

lol nice idea, perhaps this will help the people that cant figure out there phones.

[DNR]

not sure police would access your cellco records to track your phone movement.

you do not need a warrant or right to capture what is seen in the public, and that includes wifi signals or even bounceback from a RFID card in your wallet. If the invasion is considered focused - like a person is singled out and deep inspection is performed beyond what everyone else in public will experience - then its a civil rights violation of privacy.

A gas company can drive down a residential street and point a FLIR at every house to find customers with heating issues. But, if anyone would stop at one house, and start using millimeter waves or such to penetrate the walls of the home to see what is inside - with no reasonable purpose except to see you and the inside of your home - then its considered unreasonable inspection.

A police officer can use regular binoculars to view the inside of your house through an open window, from the sidewalk or neighbor's porch - that is considered 'plainview' search.

so capturing the RF from your phone, your car - is no different from anyone viewing the color, make, and model of your car, and its plate number. They just found another way to 'tag' vehicles faster at a toll booth, wheel RFID, or blue tooth network.

DNR

[floodhound2]

Great point DNR! I love the outside thinking here.

I guess the moral of the story is everyone is watching so cover your ass, if you can now a days.