Privacy Notes: November 29, 2020
SignalFrame and the IoT
Source: Next Step in Government Data Tracking Is the Internet of Things. (2020, November 28). Wall Street Journal
The US Air Force awarded a $50,000 grant to commercial platform SignalFrame, a Washington DC based wireless technology company. SignalFrame uses cellphone data to tap into any peripheral devices connected to the internet, such as fitness trackers, routers, computers, and cars. It turns cellphones into “sniffers” — listening devices that can detect wireless signals from nearby devices logging MAC addresses and other data.
The military is attracted to the technology because it can be used weave together classified and un-classified data. The usefulness of the data can be leveraged using machine learning and AI technology. Anticipating government interest, Razor’s Edge, a national security focused venture capital firm, is another investor.
At this point the software works only on Android devices (70%) of the global market. People, mostly unknowingly, grant access to this data through agreements that pop-up when an app is opened.
