Wi-Fi Tracking Threatens Users’ Privacy in Fingerprinting Techniques

Abstract The widespread adoption of mobile devices has led to an increased usage of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Both communication systems leak information during operation, which has been used for localization and tracking without the user’s consent or even awareness. In case of Wi-Fi fingerprinting, additional network scans are preformed and thus, even more signal information can be captured leading to a serious privacy issue. This chapter deals with such risks for users’ privacy. First, technical aspects as well as potentials and limitations of existing approaches are presented. Second, several security mechanisms are introduced enabling encryption and MAC address randomization at the mobile device. Third, a privacy-preserving indoor positioning approach is proposed where no frames are sent out actively. All methods are discussed in terms of feasibility and their ability to protect users’ privacy in real-world scenarios. It is shown that an overall solution is still missing.