Bluetooth Big Brother uses mobiles and laptops to track thousands of Britons

With Bluetooth headsets being a must here in CA. Can you imagine if California did this around LA or the Bay area during rush hour times. I wonder what kind of data they could collect.

That is why you should always switch bluetooth and wlan off, if you dont need them. As my host says: "only open ports can be attacked"

Its laughable to say they do not know who you are i would not be surprised the blue tooth devices have tracking serial numbers were they know who you are anyway

Research like this could provide some interesting results into peoples habits and movements, though I doubt it would be far away from actually coroborrating such information with the individual's personal info, based on where they live and go to work/school. I'm worried about who gets their hands on this kind of technology..

The whole no-privacy conspiracy just won't die.
A fuss about nothing.

Is this the start of everyone being tracked, and every single persons actions being watched and recorded, or is it simple harmless information collection?

Probably the latter to be fair.

When you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about.

This whole thing is a little bit of a joke, there are plus sides to it though. For example, If they understand how people move about their networks, the network can be improved more efficently.

On the other hand, Fuck big brother, question everything.

how many brits do you think they found out drink tea a couple times a day?

This seems to me like a floodgates issue to me. They track cars then phones and slowly intrude more and more without the public's consent. We need to be careful about intruding into people's private lives for the sole purpose of scientific knowledge.

You know, I don't mind being tracked, I'm not dong anything wrong; just don't tell me what to do!!

Why can't I shake the feeling that this released excuse is an easy out should anyone involved prepare to sue?
It just doesn't sound "legit" to me.

I also submit that in addition to the personal responsibility of monitoring what signals we emit to be tracked with, that MANY of today's cell phones have a built in monitor, allowing you to be tracked via a GPS emitter from your cellphone.

The argument is that in case something happens to you, you can be more easily found when Law Enforcement can simply look up your signal to find you anywhere.

By this same argument, imagine the ramifications of anyone being able to find you anywhere at any time? Not just within a defined section using only the fact that you're emitting a signal.

Most cellphones are shipped from the factory with that setting enabled. It's fairly simple to disable, but even then you sometimes can't completely shut it off.

With my Verizon phone, the only two options I had for the GPS tracking were to have it open for service, or to leave it on for Emergency (911) purposes.

Getting up in arms about a study like this is just silly. When you constantly emit a number of signals, it's very simple in many cases to disable their transmission and is your responsibility to do so should you require digital privacy.

Further, they came out to explain what they did and why; would it not have been worse to have simply not said anything at all?

Your best weapon is information. Learn about your devices and what they do and take responsibility for your own privacy.

"As many as 3,000 Bluetooth devices are tracked every weekend and one recent study monitored the movements of 10,000 people around Bath."

"mobiles and laptops could be creating a permanent record that will be stored on a central database"

OK, seems a bit Orwellian.

"The notion that an agency would serious consider Bluetooth scanning as a surveillance technique is ludicrous,' Cityware director Eamonn O'Neill told The Guardian."

Wait, WHAT?? Is this guy really suggesting that tracking the movements of mobile devices and potentially storing that information in a central database doesn't amount to "surveillance"?? How can he not see the potential for abuse with a system like this? Perhaps the most alarming part of this is that it is being done without the informed consent of the local population. I would like to believe that this sort of thing would not, or could not, happen in the US, but honestly it wouldn't really surprise me to find out a similar "study" were taking place in the US at this very moment.

It's a good demonstration of just how easy surveillance has become. If the University of Bath managed to track 10,000 people without anyone noticing, is it fair to say that others with vested interests could do the same?

if they can truly monitor peoples movements without gathering personal information about the individual, this is no stranger than tracking the migration patterns of birds.