You know that, at least in America, except από την Εθνική Υπηρεσία Ασφαλείας των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών (NSA), το Ομοσπονδιακό Γραφείο Ερευνών (FBI) και την police, there are also some advertising companies that monitor the mobile phone data of unsuspecting users, with the help of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as quadcopters or drones.
Yes it's true! The Singapore-based advertising company called AdNear, has been using a series of small quadcopters flying over the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles since early February to monitor Wi-Fi signals and cell phone signals.
The drones have the ability to "sniff" the movement of mobile phone signals or the signals of wireless devices entering the internet (router with wi-fi), and then identify the device ID. Using this information, quadcopters monitor every movement and behavior of individual users.
In general, the reason behind this espionage on wireless networks is the company's interest in providing highly targeted ads to users, which is not surprising, as these advertising companies make every effort to collect user information.
However, this advertising agency assures people that wireless data collected by the Drones fleet is anonymous and does not include user phone numbers, call data, any multimedia files, conversations, or personally identifiable information.
The company says it only uses signals from nearby cellular antennas or Wi-Fi hotspots, as well as other indicators to determine users' device location. Each user's location data is then used to match their travel habits.
However, the description on the company's official website about this program sounds rather creepy.
"The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the collection of location data will dramatically reduce human intervention and facilitate the process of data collection in inaccessible areas. … We are talking about a new level " we read in the description. "For us, it's a lot of fun!"
The advertising company he told VentureBeat that it is the first time a company uses unmanned helicopters in an effort to collect wireless user data.
Perhaps for some of you, this whole story does not sound very worrying. But we remind you that about a year ago, security researchers from Sensepoint based in London, developed a remote-controlled quadcopter they named Snoopy that was able to intercept data from users' smartphones using fake wireless networks. It spoofed WiFi networks so Drone Snoopy could connect to targeted Smartphones without checking ID cards or interaction.
Read Snoopy Drone an unmanned smartphone hacker
At the moment we have not heard of a similar scenario or program "running" in Greece. No doubt, AdNear helicopters and every respective private company is working on an innovative concept, but it becomes clear that there is a need for some statutory express provisions to ensure the protection of the private life of the average citizen.
