Walking in downtown Seattle? Your smartphone may be tracked by a police mesh network.

The Seattle police department has a proven track record of being less than forthcoming when they institute surveillance measures. They installed 30 cameras in the port district for 'security' without owning up to it or saying how they are used. Most recently, they've installed a mesh wireless network downtown. Each box contains for wireless access points, and they talk to each other. And they can track and triangulate a smartphone's WiFi radio.

The city council passed a regulation that all systems capable of surveillance have to have detailed usage plans before the council within 30 days of installation. The report is expected around Thanksgiving, and the new police network, from a vendor known as Aruba, will have been up for nine months at that point.

The whole thing was funded by the Department of Homeland Security and feeds an intelligence fusion center, among other recipients.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/you-are-a-rogue-device/Content?oid=18143845

http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/13/11/09/060253/seattle-pd-mum-on-tracking-by-its-new-wi-fi-mesh-network


There's a concept called geofencing. In it, a geographic point is defined, such as 'my parent's house', and under iPhone's iOS 6 and later you could tell it 'remind me to open the vent in the bedroom when I get to my parent's house.' I would imagine that Android phones have similar capability. It'd be cool if you could tell it 'Disable WiFi when I leave home, turn it on when I return.'