GoKawiilEdgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions is proposing its SignalTrace tech to law-enforcement agencies. SignalTrace could let police track vehicles using the electronic signals from phones, laptops, smartwatches, and other nearby devices alongside ALPR cameras.
While Leonardo says the system does not identify individuals, recurring device signatures could potentially be linked to specific vehicles and their registered owners.
The technology could help police track vehicles that evade license-plate cameras, but it could also flag innocent people when their devices appear in vehicles associated with an investigation.
Imagine a world where the police can identify people on the move not just by their license plate, but also the electronic devices that are traveling with them. This is exactly what a new sensor system from Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions is designed to achieve.
The technology is aptly named SignalTrace, and it is designed to detect Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and RFID signals being emitted from nearby devices (via ArsTechnica). Leonardo’s idea is to deploy these sensors alongside automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras like those from Flock.
Here’s how tracking would theoretically work: Let’s say you drive to work every single day, and there’s an ALPR camera on the way. It recognizes your license plate and registers it every day. At the same time, an accompanying SignalTrace sensor at the same location could pick up electronic signals being emitted from your devices. This can include your phone, tablet, laptop, smartwatch, and more.
Leonardo An image highlighitng how SignalTrace operates.
Over time, the system, which could be analyzing both the ALPR camera’s data and SignalTrace’s data, would spot the recurring pattern of the group of electronics repeatedly appearing with your vehicle.
This is where things get blurry from a privacy standpoint.
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