German researchers have successfully tested a new technology that could transform ordinary WiFi networks used in homes and shops into a powerful "invisible surveillance system."
The system combines conventional wireless signals with AI to capture how radio waves respond and change when reflecting off people's bodies nearby, functioning like a camera.
What's remarkable is that even without a phone or WiFi-connected device on the person being monitored (even if the phone is turned off), the system can identify who they are by analyzing how waves from other nearby devices are disrupted as they pass through the person's body.
The distinctive feature of this technology is that unlike previous experiments, it can work with ordinary WiFi routers around us without requiring expensive specialized sensors.
Typically, the information (Beamforming Feedback) exchanged between routers and phones is not encrypted, so anyone within the signal range can intercept and read it.
When these wave disruption patterns were sent to the AI system for training, it became capable of identifying a person's image and identity within mere seconds.
When tested with 197 people, the system was able to distinguish who they were with nearly 100 percent accuracy, regardless of how they were moving or from which angle they were viewed.
Therefore, researchers are concerned that this technology could pose significant threats to personal privacy and, particularly in authoritarian countries, could be misused for covert surveillance of protesters and the general population.
Because of this, they have strongly urged that stricter privacy protections be incorporated into the new WiFi standards that will be released in the future.
Ref: Science Daily
