[Cryptography] Threat Model: Bluetooth tracking beacons

[Tom Mitchell]

On Sat, Sep 24, 2016 at 9:50 AM, Henry Baker <hbaker1 at pipeline.com> wrote:

> FYI --
>
> https://motherboard.vice.com/read/apple-deleting-the-
> iphones-audio-jack-is-good-news-for-marketing-companies
>
> Apple Deleting the iPhone's Audio Jack Is Good News for Marketing Companies
>
> Written by Joshua Kopstein  September 23, 2016 // 08:00 AM EST
>
> Apple's much-anticipated decision to nix the headphone jack on its newest
> iPhone has understandably made a lot of people very angry.  But there's at
> least one industry that's jumping for joy over the death of the ubiquitous
> audio plug: Marketing companies that track your phone's location and target
> you with ads.
>
> The reason for the celebration is Bluetooth beacons, a "proximity
> marketing" technology

....

> Also, of course, you're going to have to throw away your Fitbit, your BLE
> heart rate monitor, your $5,000 gold iWatch, etc. [2]
>

Marketing is just the sparkling end of the stick.

Today most of us are walking beacons of active and passive RFID devices.
Cell phone, WiFi, Bluetooth, near field
and other "visible beacons".  Combine with face detection and load cells at
the entrance and exit there
is a rather tight identity leash on individuals.   Yes even RFID chips in
pets as you walk the dog
past the door.

As you approach the counter you and your passive devices can be lit up and
recorded.
Passport, RFID in credit cards, inventory trackers built into your shoes,
inserted in jackets,
purses, belts.

Your ID is the "set" of these and a randomized MAC ID can be correlated to
passive
devices for extended range at times.

Most of us have been asked to register our external home safety
surveillance cameras
so they can be downloaded by law enforcement.   Once registered these
systems can be demanded
by prosecution and defense.    "We" want and demand a data dump so "we" can
search the dump
for a John Doe and unnamed persons of interest yet there is no policy to
purge the other 100,000
individual records... rules of evidence argue with a purge.

These retail site data systems can be subject to  All Writs Act demands.

Small town rural america is used to the one neighbor that notes all coming
and going on
Shady Lane USA.   Now that community has ballooned to the entire city and
state
and the nosy neighbor can be any official, officer or activist.

http://aquablutopia.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-to-deal-with-different-types-of.html

A difference is a nosy neighbor is historically not a person of power.

If permitted these systems could be abused...
Permission can be simply passive ignorance as a regulation change
by a state or federal agency becomes law through inaction.
Permission is seen by some as an absence of a prohibiting law.

If managed some good things might happen.
The marketing push cares nothing about the second order social impact.

A simple "good" example might be voter ID.  Profiles can be built and
evidence of
duplicate voter fraud uncovered without an "ID" check or issuing department.
There are those that assert there voter fraud is real.   This would look
like a
solution to some and perhaps proof that ID's are needed depending on what
was found.

These "marketing" systems might be purchased locally with federal or state
grant money
not unlike the Hailstorm system in Oakland CA.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2016/06/28/oakland-cell-phone-surveillance-vote-postponed-to-improve-privacy-protections
Because the money is mostly not "local money" local oversight is might be
sidestepped.
"....agencies used federal Urban Areas Security Initiative grant funds
along with..."
N.B. Guidelines are not law.

So the crypto/mathematical challenge is to build reliable zero external
knowledge connections without
generating a durable trackable beacon stream.    Durable could be less than
15 min....  oh wait I just started
a dotted line ... between ... here ... and ... there ... and ... more.

The number of iPhones makes this a valuable project.   Incremental
improvements will follow to expand to
anything one thing at a time.




-- 
  T o m    M i t c h e l l
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