If you live in Europe, you might want to sign the European citizen initiative banning biometrics

Reclaimyourface.eu

Thank you so much for the link! :-) I am going to share it with everyone I can!

Signed. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for this comment. While it is a no-brainer for me to support this, I initially felt that this is hopeless and very few people care. But after seeing your comment, it pushed me to also sign :-) We shouldn't give up.

I tried to sign but was unable to pass the captcha on my phone.

Tried all browsers I have. Captcha doesn't even pop up.

Are you a robot?

They need 1 million signatures, they're currently at 51197 after 3 months. This is not likely to go anywhere. I guess people just don't care enough.

It's funny how you seem to believe that people "don't care" when it's actually more likely that people simply disagree.

Do you mean to say that people are fond of surveillance and facial recognition?

A lot of people are fond of security indeed! And I can imagine many even excited about this new technology. Maybe they just don't buy into this campaign. "we don't know what companies and governments want to use it for", but obviously gvts want to enforce the law and companies want to sell more stuff so nothing mysterious there and especially nothing against LGBTQI+ in the EU for sure despite the campaign's message.

I...don't await eagerly the time when tinfoil ceases to be the joke it has been for decades, instead being promoted to a solution anybody even remotely interested in their privacy utilizes.

RF blocking walls could be useful for more than just privacy. Could block out neighbors overpowered wifi APs. Just have a data line in and wifi APs inside.

That would work, as far as you don't plan on using your cell phone at home.

Luckily most carriers support call/SMS over WiFi. And if that isn't available, a signal booster could bridge the RF barrier.

Soon we’ll have to paint our home walls with Wifi proof paint to bounce off external signals , if they keep designing stuff like this...

Tinfoil hats are the joke. Tinfoil itself isn’t that funny. :-)

https://ans.unibs.it/projects/csi-murder/ enabled by https://github.com/open-sdr/openwifi

Both partially funded by EU's Horizon2020 program.

Openwifi talk at FOSDEM 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q5nHUWP43U

Thank you!

> Honestly I don't see any purely technical solution to this.

For home, chicken wire in the walls and wired networks. A Faraday cage is the simple solution, but unfortunately for this case is unlikely to be in most interior walls in modern buildings.

That would be illegal where I’m from since it also disrupts 911 service. Yes, even in your own home.

RF flooding and interference is illegal but I have never seen that simply blocking phone signal is illegal. Even concrete walls will do that.

That sounds like one of those things made into law but hard to enforce for practical reasons, and if they did try to enforce it, might be something that a civil rights group might take up to get stricken down. Especially with what we're discussing in this thread coming.

Check this out https://youtu.be/FDZ39h-kCS8

Gait recognition! I wonder if they can remotely decode passwords being typed on physical keyboards, since keyboards have a well-known spatial layout.

The characteristic length of 2.4GHz waves is ~12cm. This is roughly their feature resolution size. But you can do better with more antennas, more frequencies, more time, and phase information.

I've tried this [0] "typing biometrics authentication" out in some test apps. It worked well in detecting typing a password between two hands, just my left hand and just my right hand. I tried to do the same cadence - but it seems to also notice keypress duration as well. Not sure how I feel about my typing rhythm being a personal signature.

[0] https://www.typingdna.com/

Search-as-you-type interfaces, including search engines, often have enough signal to perform keystroke timing for the same purpose.

>Honestly I don't see any purely technical solution to this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage

Use a router certified with "Respects Your Freedom": https://fsf.org/ryf

> Honestly I don't see any purely technical solution to this.

The technical solution is pretty simple: do not use Wi-Fi. I use wired connections for all of the devices in my household. The only non-technical aspect of the solution was an interior design-based one about unobtrusive cable wiring around the house.

Build better walls. Don't try to outlaw people "looking at you", no matter what frequency they use.

I find it equally ridiculous to try to outlaw software radio that might listen to "unapproved" radio bands, or listening to clear-text WiFi, baby monitors and cell phones.

It's almost as stupid as people who would want brain implant computers to implement DRM so people can't record and share their own memory of a movie.

Another analogy would be a country of blind people trying to legislate sighted people wearing blindfolds, because all of their privacy fences have huge holes in them.

Technology improves people's abilities. Adapt.

I think you should read your own comment but slowly to realize how absurd it is to say "Build better walls". You are basically saying the whole world should rebuild the walls because of this totally not needed WiFi standard. Great!

Also I do not agree on "technology improves people's abilities" statement. It is always based on how the technology is used. Famous example. Harnessing nuclear energy. You can use it to blow up cities or to generate power around the world.

One shouldn't develop technology for advancement's sake. Every new technology should be given thorough thought and analysis into it on why is it needed? and are the negatives outweigh the positives? or vice versa? and so on.

problem are law can not stop egrigous bad actor, so necesary for to proof against such persons with better wall. we "should" not having to do this but we are having to if we are caring for privacy.

There are a lot of walls to upgrade then, who should pay for that?

Standing in someone's garden, peering through their window is dealt with via legislation.

Since the invention of video recording devices, rather than having everyone upgrade their windows, legislation was reinterpreted and updated to govern the recording of people in private places vs public places.

It doesn't seem unreasonable for the same to be done to keep up with other forms of technology.

> Build better walls. Don't try to outlaw people "looking at you", no matter what frequency they use.

It's just not possible to make a wall that can't be seen through, at least without making them tens of meters thick, even using high density concrete, tungsten, or uranium.

Muons aren't photons, but cosmic muon tomography has been used to image the Great Pyramid of Giza and also several mountains. Exposure times for cosmic muon tomography are very long, but with enough exposure time, correlating 5-minute blocks across days, someone could work out mean density throughout your house and make low-res 3D video of your daily routine, even with 1 meter thick walls of reactor-grade high-density concrete with sheet steel cladding.

> Build better walls.

Rebuilding all houses in the world because someone creates a totally superfluous gadget. Seems reasonable.

I dunno - I could see a huge market for wallpaper with embedded wire mesh in it :)

Or just don’t install these devices in your house/live in a place where privacy is functionally impossible like an apartment building.

If the standard is built into all future WiFi standards you might have no choice in having to install those devices. If you want to obtain the fastest speeds/range/features etc.

Seems like someone can just pull up anywhere in a car and have this capability. You probably won’t have a choice.

And if someone stands out side with a wifi device emitting a signal in to your house?