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Steve’s Blog
Personal blog · crc.id.ausecurityprogramming
Steve’s Blog is a personal blog at crc.id.au about security and programming. Since 2016, 5 different Hacker News readers have linked it 5 times, most often “Tracking people via WiFi (even when not connected)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-22, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Steve's Blog posts on tracking people through Wi-Fi MAC addresses and Bluetooth beacons in retail stores. One comment cites the MAC-address post as support for cycling MAC addresses.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Tracking people via WiFi (even when not connected)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2017-12-03
What Hacker News says?
Maybe the existence of such toolkits is a Chesterton's Fence that says you can't make this work without something installed on the phone. But this would be possible without these trojans. If the Bluetooth beacon configures itself as a master, and enters inquiry mode, phones that pass nearby will happily respond with their Bluetooth ID (see https://www.bluetooth.org/docman/handlers/downloaddoc.ashx?d... , section 8.4…
Comment linking /tracking-people-via-wifi-even-when-not-connected/
on “Retail stores use Bluetooth beacons to track customers”Submitted Using centralised management with Let's Encrypt as a story · 3 points
HN discussionLooks cool. I wish there was something like this for iPhone/iPad - which is much more likely to be with me everywhere and leak my MAC... side note/question: do I need to actively connect to a WIFI network for them to know my MAC or does it leak even when my phone scans for neighbouring SSIDs? EDIT: looks like MAC would leak even if I don't connect to any access point, but my Wifi is on... At least according to [0] E…
Comment linking /tracking-people-via-wifi-even-when-not-connected/
on “Randomize your WiFi MAC address on Ubuntu”Submitted Tracking people via WiFi (even when not connected) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionWe should be cycling MAC addresses regularly anyway since they leak information: https://www.crc.id.au/tracking-people-via-wifi-even-when-not...
Comment linking /tracking-people-via-wifi-even-when-not-connected/
on “Australia's Home Affairs department proposes making telcos retain MAC addresses”