120
This Company Will Add Phone, AirPod, and Smartwatch Trackers to License Plate Readers
(www.404media.co)
they're fucking weaponizing TMPS sensors now??
this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2026
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Privacy
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Called it! Totally called this!
Sadly not a surprise, this is why I switched back to wired headphones some time ago and like how Graphene turns Bluetooth off automatically if not in use.
Always remember. If they can, they will. We are powerless animals to people with power.
that's only useful if they are in pursuit tho, because the device beeing in the car (or near the sensor) is not proof of the owner being actually there, especially if it's devices that don't even have lock functions, like airpods.
as if cops give a shit about such a fundamental aspect of what their jobs are purported to be
It's enough, especially if you collect several data points over time
for what? for in court? i doubt it
leaving the house with a dumbphone on a faraday bag and that's it
Some even check the wireless TPMS tire sensors…
Drive a car made later than 2007? Too bad they're profiling the car electronics already.
I'm routing my cellphone through VoIP in my house to a landline phone... I will be not using a cellphone in the near future. all calls to the house, if I'm not home... too bad, leave a message.
oh you need me to have a phone for mfa? too bad... I won't use your service or I'm going into the building. it's 1998 lifestyle for me now.
If you're really doing this, that's amazing, call the media, a documentary needs to be made about you.
oh you need me to have a phone for mfa?
For a master’s in fine art. Or for the metropolitan fransit authority.
On the off chance someone stubbles upon this that is actually confused: "Multi-Factor Authentication"
I actually realized this seconds before your notification came through- I was thinking mono factor authentication as another joke option for a second and then it clicked.
That's less creative than you could have been.
My goal was not creativity. If it were i would have said My Fat Ass or somrthing equally silly
Just getting content out fast? I'm not sure I approve. There's a lot to be said for timelessness.
So youre just built annoying?
See! Yes, it looks like lazy ad hominem on the surface, but use of the word 'built' gives it crispy flaky layers like an insulting croissant! Glad you came around!
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.
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.
It'll probably suck and use AI to guess at mac addresses and just end up costing a bunch.
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.
What if you're using it?
Dont.
😐