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Security researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany have demonstrated that ordinary Wi‑Fi routers can be used to identify and track individuals by analysing unencrypted beamforming feedback information (BFI). The team’s BFId method, tested on 197 volunteers, produced identification accuracies of up to 99.5% and works even when targets carry no wireless device or have phones turned off.
BFId passively captures BFI broadcast by devices using Wi‑Fi 5 and later, requiring only an adapter in monitor mode and no access to the victim network.
The technique outperformed earlier channel state information (CSI) approaches and can combine with other data to link identities.
Researchers have raised alarms about the privacy risks and urged standards bodies to add protections to the IEEE 802.11bf Wi‑Fi sensing specifications; encryption or protocol changes could be complex and risk backward compatibility.
The findings were presented in academic venues and published as part of ongoing work on Wi‑Fi sensing and surveillance threats.






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