BSSID Randomization
· 3 min read
How Does WiFi Location Positioning & Tracking Work?
All Apple Smartphones and Laptops as well as Google Devices passively collect Access Point Names (the SSID) and their hardware address (the BSSID), and they then tag it with the GPS location. With billions of customers, tech giants have been able to build databases that contain the physical position of almost every access point in the world.
Researchers from the University of Maryland published that the privacy features in the public APIs were insufficient to protect the privacy of individuals. See the paper from Erik Rye, Dave Levin for the details: "Surveilling the Masses with Wi-Fi-Based Positioning Systems"
Krebs On Security has a through review of the issue: "Why Your Wi-Fi Router Doubles as an Apple AirTag"