this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2026
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Privacy

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This Company Will Add Phone, AirPod, and Smartwatch Trackers to License Plate Readers (www.404media.co)
submitted 1 day ago by empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

A surveillance company plans to add sensors to automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) that would mean the devices, as well as capture the license plate of passing vehicles, would also sweep up unique identifiers of mobile phones, wearables, and other Bluetooth-enabled devices in those cars, potentially letting law enforcement identify specific drivers or passengers.

This sucks and shouldn’t be happening, but is also relatively simple to counteract if you turn your Bluetooth off. Of course most people won’t, which is why it sucks and shouldn’t be happening.

[–] yellerbadger@piefed.social 3 points 18 hours ago

I wonder if it gets to be like browser fingerprinting where turning your Bluetooth off itself becomes a data point in combination with your make, model, dents and dings on your car, etc.

[–] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

It'll probably suck and use AI to guess at mac addresses and just end up costing a bunch.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 16 points 1 day ago

Also, most Bluetooth devices today - the ones they seem to be tracking, anyway - are using Resolvable Private Addresses, meaning the devices exchange not the MAC address directly, but a crypto key that can be used, in correlation with the current time, to determine a pseudo-randomly generated address and establish connection...

I've implemented Bluetooth tracking in my home (using ESPHome and in-house triangulation - I have appropriate nodes all over my home for this), and needed to extract the IRK for my iPhone and Apple Watch (but same goes for Android devices).

They may be able to track older Bluetooth devices (headphones and such), and older built-in Bluetooth systems in cars (not sure if they can be disabled tbf), but modern phones? Not unless they illegally tap into the phone somehow and extract the key for predicting the addresses.