Elaborating from this question : Bluetooth/WiFi Identity tracking in public spaces - How to discover?
Questions:
How are they tracking me :
- From a hardware perspective
- Is it a mac address that they are getting from my device by blasting wifi
- From a software perspective
- I assume they are using some sort of wifi based triangulation
- How is it legal?
- Is it because it is public space?
Background if Unfamiliar
Researchers Piotr Sapiezynski, Arkadiusz Stopczynski, Radu Gatej and Sune Lehmann point out that "large companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, or Skyhook, combine Wi-Fi access points with GPS data to improve positioning, a practice known as 'wardriving'." The actual "how" is "proprietary to large companies."
Smartphone location tracking via Wi-Fi signals, motion sensors for subway riders
I know very little about this subject and would like to learn more. I do know that it was such a large issue in NYC that the ALCU stepped in:
In March of 2016, the NYCLU sent a letter to the Office of the Mayor warning that, under the previous privacy policy, CityBridge, the company behind the LinkNYC kiosks, could potentially retain a vast amount of information about users – often indefinitely. The NYCLU contended that this gave CityBridge the ability to build a massive database that could pose a risk of security breaches and unwarranted NYPD surveillance.....Under the old policy, users had to submit their e-mail addresses and agree to allow CityBridge to collect information about what websites they visited on their devices, where and how long they lingered on certain information on a webpage, and what links they clicked on. The privacy policy only offered to make “reasonable efforts” to clear out this massive amount of personally identifiable user information, and even then, only if there was 12 months of user inactivity. That meant that New Yorkers who used LinkNYC regularly could have had their personally identifiable information stored for a lifetime and beyond.
CITY STRENGTHENS PUBLIC WI-FI PRIVACY POLICY AFTER NYCLU RAISES CONCERNS