[Infowarrior] - Devices That Tell On You: The Nike+iPod Sport Kit

[Richard Forno]

Devices That Tell On You: The Nike+iPod Sport Kit

T. Scott Saponas, Jonathan Lester, Carl Hartung, and Tadayoshi Kohno.
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington.

Overview

Key industry players are incorporating wireless radio communications
capabilities into many new personal consumer products. For example, the new
Nike+iPod Sport Kit from Apple consists of two components -- a sensor and a
receiver -- that communicate using a wireless radio protocol. Unfortunately,
there can be negative side-effects associated with equipping these gadgets
with wireless communications capabilities.

In the case of the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, our research shows that the wireless
capabilities in this new gadget can negatively impact a consumer's personal
privacy and safety. As part of our research, we built a number of
surveillance tools that malicious individuals could use to track Nike+iPod
Sport Kit owners. Our tools can track Nike+iPod Sport Kit owners while they
our working out, as well as when they are just casually walking around town,
a parking lot, or a college campus. The tracked individuals don't even need
to have their iPods with them.

Our research also shows that there exist simple cryptographic techniques
that the Nike+iPod Sport Kit designers could have used to improve the
privacy-preserving properties of the Nike+iPod kit.

Our work underscores the need for a broad public discussion about and
further research on the privacy-preserving properties of new wireless
personal gadgets.

We stress, however, that there is no evidence that Apple or Nike intended
for these devices to be used in any malicious manner. Additionally, neither
Apple nor Nike endorsed this study.

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http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/systems/privacy.html