Practical Internet of Things Security - Second Edition

Metadata can leak private information

A striking report by Open Effect (https://openeffect.ca/reports/Every_Step_You_Fake.pdf) documented the metadata that is collected by today's consumer wearable devices. In one of the cases they explored, the researchers analyzed the Bluetooth discovery features of different manufacturer's wearable products. The researchers attempted to determine whether the vendors had enabled new privacy features that were designed into the Bluetooth 4.2 specification. They found that only one of the manufacturers (Apple) had implemented them, leaving open the possibility of the exploitation of the static Media Access Control (MAC) address for persistent tracking of a person wearing one of the products. Without the new ...