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Kevin Samson | Activist Post
If there is ever a perfect example of dual-use technology, it is WiFi connectivity. I’ve already covered the mounting evidence that our ubiquitous gadgets and wireless connections are doing irreparable physical harm, especially to the young and to pregnant women, but the concern about surveillance is running a parallel track.
Recent announcements in the UK and in New York City have shown that governments are working with private corporations to blanket entire cities with WiFi connectivity. Naturally they are appealing to people’s love of technology for entertainment and business to push this agenda forward.
However, beneath the surface is the development of tracking technologies that specifically use WiFi as a pervasive method of surveilling every single person who is in range – in some cases regardless of even having a connected device.
Well, sure enough, once the technology already has been committed to a full roll-out, here come the announcements about other uses that put everyone in the crosshairs … of course now in the name of stopping crime and terrorism.
As the UK’s Mail Online reports:
Fingerprints and DNA are key evidence in identifying criminals, but crime scene investigators of the future may add Wi-fi to their toolkit for tracking down lawbreakers.
If police were able seize Wi-fi devices at the scene of a crime, they could have access to vital information which could place people at the scene at the time an incident took place.
Dan Blackman, a PhD candidate at Edith Cowan University in Australia, and technical adviser to Western Australia Police, thinks police are missing out by not using this key source of information. (emphasis added)
Firstly, the idea that police just now realized that WiFi can be used in this manner is patently absurd. In 2013, Seattle police were forced to deactivate a hidden WiFi mesh network system that was funded by Homeland Security.