"Researchers: Wi-Fi Probe Requests Expose User Data"

A group of academic researchers from the University of Hamburg in Germany has recently discovered that mobile devices leak identifying information about their owners via Wi-Fi probe requests.  The researchers noted that mobile devices use these probe requests to receive information about nearby Wi-Fi access points and establish connections to them when a probe response is received.  The researchers found that attackers that can sniff network traffic can use these probe requests to track and identify devices and even pinpoint their location.  According to the researchers, roughly a quarter of probe requests contain the Service Set Identifier (SSIDs) of networks the devices were previously connected to, which could be used to reveal home addresses or visited locations.  The researchers stated that the probe requests can be used to “trilaterate the location of a device with an accuracy of up to 1.5 meters” or to follow the movement of a device to essentially track its owner.

SecurityWeek reports: "Researchers: Wi-Fi Probe Requests Expose User Data"