CNN.com - WiFi activists on free Web crusade - Nov. 29, 2002

[Steve Schear]

At 12:54 PM 12/3/2002 -0500, Sunder wrote:
>Simple.  Signal strength from at least three access points will pinpoint
>your location.  If any of the AP's have known GPS coordinates, your
>location can be interpolated.
>
>To fix this, change your MAC address (or whatever WiFi uses for that),
>randomly every time you move around, and don't share things that can
>identify your machine.  i.e don't run things such as SMTP, FTP, Microsoft
>File sharing which give away your host name, and don't accept cookies from
>web sites that can track you, and make sure your browser doesn't leak your
>email address, and be aware that anything you do can be sniffed.

In the late 70s, I was at TRW we built inflatable (beach ball) antennas for 
a black project.  About 1/3 of the balloon's inside surface was aluminized 
and the feed was simply snapped into place at the opposite side.  The 
antenna could either be used hand-held or place in a ring mount on a flat 
surface.  This sort of approach could work well for cell phones and WiFi 
cards with external antenna port.  For cell phones the entire instrument 
could be placed in at the reflector's focus and operated via a mic/headset 
adapter (some older Nokia models have an external antenna port behind a 
small rubber plug on the rear.)


A State must pay attention to virtue, because the law is a covenant or a 
guarantee of men's just claims, but it is not designed to make the citizens 
virtuous and just
-- Aristotle