Wireless and Mobile Device Security, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Although fingerprinting is not necessarily a bad thing, it can and often does lead to abuses of privacy or worse. This is especially true with mobile devices. Because these devices are such a big part of people’s lives, fingerprinting them can enable others to capture a very accurate profile of an individual and their behaviors.

Thus far, finding unique characteristics to fingerprint a device over time has been difficult. Many features provide a unique profile, but few are stable. Unfortunately, methods that appear to identify unique characteristics, down to very specific devices and their users, appear to be on the horizon. This new way of fingerprinting is in many ways much like the real thing—unique, stable, and very much ...