Researchers: Wi-Fi Probe Requests Leak User Data

A team of academic researchers from the University of Hamburg in Germany discovered that Wi-Fi investigation requests from mobile devices expose identifiable information about their owners via Wi-Fi investigation requests. 

When a probe response is received, mobile devices use it to obtain information about nearby Wi-Fi access points and connect to them. According to the researchers, attackers who can sniff network traffic can use these probing requests to monitor and identify devices, as well as determine their position. 

According to them, nearly a quarter of probe requests contain the Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) of previously connected networks, which might be exploited to expose home addresses or visited places. Furthermore, the researchers highlight that the probe requests may be used to trilaterate the position of a device with an accuracy of up to 1.5 metres or to “trace the movement of a device to effectively monitor its owner.

“This is in fact employed in 23% of the stores already. Companies and cities that conduct Wi-Fi tracking take the legal position that only the MAC address contained in probe requests is considered personal data according to GDPR Article 4(1), which protects personal data from unlawful collection and processing,” the researchers stated in

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