Re:How Retail Stores Track You Using Your Smartphone
by gnicholas on Friday July 19, 2013 @11:22AM
(#6070733)
The article suggests "turning off wifi" so that stores can't track you. Is it really necessary to turn it off entirely, as opposed to just setting your devices not to join networks automatically? I'd think that the latter—which is the normal setting for many people—would be enough, although I could imagine that there would be a way to track even devices that are not connected. Fingers crossed that stores aren't getting that sophisticated.
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Re:How Retail Stores Track You Using Your Smartphone
by mmagin on Friday July 19, 2013 @11:49AM
(#6070911)
To save on battery, portable devices tend to actively probe for networks (i.e. it is cheaper to transmit a packet than to leave the receiver on for long enough to hear beacon frames from the access points).
Thus, even if your iThing doesn't automatically join the networks out there in a store, it is still emitting packets which contain its MAC address.
Re:How Retail Stores Track You Using Your Smartphone
by dwild on Friday July 19, 2013 @02:14PM
(#6071867)
Really? Why do they need to emit anything? They could simply listen...
Re:How Retail Stores Track You Using Your Smartphone
by fennecfoxen on Friday July 19, 2013 @06:23PM
(#6073358)
If I recall correctly, at least one company (Euclid Analytics) tracks you around places even when you are not connected to the network, and instructs you to opt out if you don't like it.
Speaking of, http://euclidanalytics.com/privacy/ and https://signup.euclidelements.com/optout
So yes. Turn it all the way off.