Comment by quickthrowman
4 years ago
Yeah, this tech standard is totally insane, why would I want anyone or anything to be able to scan people and objects inside my house without my knowledge? I’m aware of microphone attacks for keyboard password entry and other methods of surreptitious surveillance, but this is way past a microphone or webcam. I will pay a massive premium to purchase WiFi equipment without this feature.
Unfortunately these will be everywhere, far beyond any existing camera surveillance network.
It's also passive. Someone could stand outside your house or factory with their device and "illuminate" activity inside the building. Only EMF shielding in/on the walls could block them. Nation-state regulators could get involved, since these devices would be using spectrum that belongs to the public.
2012 article on a military use case, https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-07/seeing-thr...
2017 video on an industrial use case, https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/wi-fi-radiation-tran...
This is very similar to radar, which raises the question, is radar already used to spy on peoples movements through walls?
X-Ray backscatter is definitely used for this, most famously by secret NYPD vans.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/10/the-nyp...
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