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    Humans can be tracked with unique 'fingerprint' based on how their bodies block Wi-Fi signals
    Futurology

    Humans can be tracked with unique ‘fingerprint’ based on how their bodies block Wi-Fi signals

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    1. MetaKnowing on

      “Researchers in Italy have developed a way to create a biometric identifier for people based on the way the human body interferes with Wi-Fi signal propagation.

      The scientists claim this identifier, a pattern derived from Wi-Fi Channel State Information, can re-identify a person in other locations most of the time when a Wi-Fi signal can be measured. Observers could therefore track a person as they pass through signals sent by different Wi-Fi networks – even if they’re not carrying a phone.

      In the past decade or so, scientists have found that Wi-Fi signals can be used for various sensing applications, such as [seeing through walls](https://www.theregister.com/2017/12/08/looking_through_walls_now_easier_than_ever/), detecting falls, sensing the presence of humans, and recognizing gestures including sign language.”

    2. rainmouse on

      Does this also work through walls? Scifi sniper stuff for rescuing hostages etc if it does. 

    3. AmusingMusing7 on

      I’ve pretty much assumed all wireless telecommunications signals can be used to 3D image the world ever since The Dark Knight gave me the idea in 2008. It wasn’t a far-fetched idea at all. Even in 2008. They used hypersonic sound to act like sonar, instead of wifi or cellular signals… which, for all we know, somebody could do through our phones at any time if they had a hacked or backdoor control over the speaker and microphone… but I’ve also always assumed there are ways to use wifi and cellular signals to 3D image the world as well. Sure enough…

      We have no guarantee to privacy in this world.

    4. nlutrhk on

      So, reading the paper preprint [Avola et al.](https://arxiv.org/html/2507.12869v1): they seem to have used a dataset that was specifically created by others for the purpose of recording the how wifi signals interact with the environment. Confusing part: they also talk about “we recorded … TP Link routers”. The paper is about the signal processing; very little information about how the dataset was created. The references for the dataset: one doesn’t talk about the data source either; the other is behind a paywall.

      My impression is that the data is created using off-the-shelf wifi hardware, but the signals are somehow extracted in a raw form before the low-level signal processing that happens in the wifi chipsets.