[Cryptography] Business opportunities in crypto

[Christian Huitema]

On 4/18/2021 5:38 AM, Jerry Leichter wrote:

> Yes, your AP continues to broadcast an SSID - but if only your pre-authorized devices can effectively connect to it, why does that matter?

It matters if you care about privacy. Imagine the Wi-Fi network is in 
your car. Its SSID is pretty much unique. If the SSID is broadcast, any 
third party can notice its presence, and then that of your car. Of 
course, you could use the "hidden SSID" hack, but that's not any better, 
probably even worse: instead of tracking the access point, third parties 
get to track the "are you here" messages from all the connected stations.

One could say that in the age of GM's One-Star or Tesla's always on 
connection, these concerns about privacy are futile. But we may keep 
some hope that such services eventually evolve an off-line mode, maybe 
under pressure. The Chinese government ban on vehicle equipped with such 
trackers may be an example of such pressure. In any case, cars are just 
an example. Personal networks would be another. I really wish that the 
industry developed a privacy preserving alternative to these rendezvous 
on SSID.

-- Christian Huitema