Related papers: Security and Privacy Analysis of Tile's Location T…
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) location trackers, or "tags", are popular consumer devices for monitoring personal items. These tags rely on their respective network of companion devices that are capable of detecting their BLE signals and relay…
This study presents an in-depth analysis of the security landscape in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) tracking systems, with a particular emphasis on Apple AirTags and Samsung SmartTags, including their cryptographic frameworks. Our…
Location tags are designed to track personal belongings. Nevertheless, there has been anecdotal evidence that location tags are also misused to stalk people. Tracking is achieved locally, e.g., via Bluetooth with a paired phone, and…
The number of IoT devices in smart homes is increasing. This broad adoption facilitates users' lives, but it also brings problems. One such issue is that some IoT devices may invade users' privacy. Some reasons for this invasion can stem…
This paper offers a new privacy approach for the growing ecosystem of services -- ranging from open banking to healthcare -- dependent on sensitive personal data sharing between individuals and third parties. While these services offer…
Finder networks in general, and Apple's Find My network in particular, can pose a grave threat to users' privacy and even health if these networks are abused for stalking. Apple's release of the AirTag, a very affordable tracker covered by…
Driverless vehicle as a taxi is gaining more attention due to its potential to enhance urban transportation efficiency. However, both unforeseen incidents led by unsupervised physical users' driverless taxi (DT) rides and personalized needs…
A plethora of contact tracing apps have been developed and deployed in several countries around the world in the battle against Covid-19. However, people are rightfully concerned about the security and privacy risks of such applications. To…
Personal item tracking devices are popular for locating lost items such as keys, wallets, and suitcases. Originally created to help users find personal items quickly, these devices are now being abused by stalkers and domestic abusers to…
Peer-discovery protocols within P2P networks are often vulnerable: because creating network identities is essentially free, adversaries can eclipse honest nodes or partition the overlay. This threat is especially acute for blockchains,…
When users leave their mobile devices unattended, or let others use them momentarily, they are susceptible to privacy breaches. Existing technological defenses, such as unlock authentication or account switching, have proven to be…
Tor is the most widely used anonymity network, currently serving millions of users each day. However, there is no access control in place for all these users, leaving the network vulnerable to botnet abuse and attacks. For example,…
Overnight, Apple has turned its hundreds-of-million-device ecosystem into the world's largest crowd-sourced location tracking network called offline finding (OF). OF leverages online finder devices to detect the presence of missing offline…
Apple AirTags use Apple's Find My network: when nearby iDevices detect a lost tag, they anonymously forward an encrypted location report to Apple, which the tag's owner can then fetch to locate the item. That encryption protects privacy --…
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has become the primary transmission media due to its extremely low energy consumption, good network scope, and data transfer speed for the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart wearable devices. With the exponential…
Many tracking companies collect user data and sell it to data markets and advertisers. While they claim to protect user privacy by anonymizing the data, our research reveals that significant privacy risks persist even with anonymized data.…
Mobile devices with rich features can record videos, traffic parameters or air quality readings along user trajectories. Although such data may be valuable, users are seldom rewarded for collecting them. Emerging digital marketplaces allow…
Anonymous communication networks have emerged as crucial tools for obfuscating communication pathways and concealing user identities. However, their practical deployments face significant challenges, including susceptibility to artificial…
Stalkerware is a serious threat to individuals' privacy that is receiving increased attention from the security and privacy research communities. Existing works have largely focused on studying leading stalkerware apps, dual-purpose apps,…
With current technology, a number of entities have access to user mobility traces at different levels of spatio-temporal granularity. At the same time, users frequently reveal their location through different means, including geo-tagged…