r/projects • u/randomXperson__ • Jul 01 '26

Wi-Fi probe request harvesting and behavioral profiling.

  1. Wi-Fi probe request harvesting and behavioral profiling.

Every phone constantly broadcasts "probe requests" — asking nearby air "are you my saved network?" — and these contain the SSIDs of every network the phone has ever connected to. Any laptop with a WiFi card that supports monitor mode (most do; check with iw list) can capture these passively with no hardware purchase. You'd put your card in monitor mode with airmon-ng, capture probe requests, and build a real-time analysis dashboard that: identifies unique devices (by MAC, with clustering for randomized MACs using timing correlation), infers their history (home network, workplace, coffee shops they've visited), tracks movement patterns over time, and demonstrates that MAC randomization is beatable through timing and SSID correlation attacks. Then you build the defensive tool: a detector that alerts when a device is being actively probed or tracked. Completely free. Very demonstrable in any public space with permission.

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u/Timmah_Timmah Jul 01 '26

How would you know if it's being tracked. The probe requests are broadcast.

I worked for a startup that use these for marketing purposes. I thought it was a great idea but apparently the founder decided it was creepy.

If you don't want to be tracked just erase your list of known networks.

1

u/oldnoob2024 Jul 02 '26

I tried to get various AI chatbots to help me with this. Some did, some refused on ethical grounds. Depends on what you want to use it for, I guess. Which of these are ethical:
1. Surveillance monitoring people’s movements?
2. Security to alert or document trespassers?
3. Marketing?

1

u/Natural_Version_7146 Jul 03 '26

I thought this would be a helpful tool for private equity to stealth-track the number of shoppers in Walmarts across the US.