Re: home screen icon to connect to wi-fi network

Enrico Papaloma, 2024-09-28 15:10:

On 9/28/2024 6:39 AM, Arno Welzel wrote:

Remember the home router is always set to not broadcast your BSSID/SSID
pair, which is prudent not for security but for privacy reasons since then
phones don't upload your unique BSSID/SSID pair to Internet databases.

>
Why do you think, that the phone won't do this, when it is *connected*
to that SSID?

 
Good question. I don't know the full answer but I suspect the correct
answer has a lot to do with the word "this" in your sentence.
 
What, exactly, do you mean, by "this"? (See what I mean, below.)

In my sentence "this" means "upload your unique BSSID/SSID pair to
Internet databases".

[...]

But I have auto-connect turned off, so the phone is not "looking" for any
WAP, and therefore once the phone is disconnected from that WAP, it stops
sending those packets containing the BSSID of the home router WAP.

Yes, but as soon as you connect, this is not the case any longer. So
your *own* WiFi network will be known.

Given that situation, I suspect the correct answer to your excellent
question is that the packets are fundamentally different when a phone is
"looking" to connect to a WAP versus when the phone "is" connected to it.

The phone will automatically see any broadcasted SSIDs and connect to it
when *when* it knows that SSID. There is no need to broadcast anything
at all.

While I can't control other people's phones, they are set up by Google to
look for the "I'm here!" packet (which I'll call the "broadcast" packet).
 
And while I can't control nefarious stores like the Cannabis store or the
Pawn shop, they too are looking at the "Are you there?" packets I assume.

You assume wrong. A WiFi router does not send any "are you here" packet.
It will usally just broadcast the SSID and all clients which know the
SSID might try to connect to it.

[...]

What has auto-connect to do with privacy if you are using your own WiFi
network?

 
Most people don't understand a thing about wireless networking and how it
impacts their privacy, so I'm not surprised you don't know how it works.
 
I can't teach you a course in networking here, but the simplest way to
answer your question is to first patiently explain that most phones are set
to auto-connect to a known WAP if it sees it, and most routers are set to
broadcast the WAP's presence, but that's not the situation in my setup.

Just name a website where all this is explained.

[...]

Do you have a source where one can learn more about this?

 
It's basic stuff. Nothing I've said is incorrect so it's everywhere.

So then it should be easy to name at least one of the websites which are
"everywhere".

[...]

That allows anyone with even minimum skills to track your every movement.
I don't want that.

>
With even "minimum skills"? How?

 
Again, this is kid's stuff. It's basic networking. Very simple. Look it up.

No - *you* claim something, then *you* name the sources.


--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de