Is it time to eliminate your home WiFi?
Or do you enjoy being monitored?
An article from July 2023 on the Tesla Telegraph website was recently brought to my attention. The piece expounds an emerging application for Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, a technology termed “WiFi Imaging.” While this may sound like a biotech tool for non-intrusive scanning for anomalies within the human body, it is something far more advanced and having far more perilous prospect.
The idea is to use WiFi much like an MRI on a larger scale (think sonar on a nuclear submarine). AI can analyze RF signals from a WiFi router in a home to essentially map out the home and the locations and movements of its occupants. While I’ve had concern for a long time about “Big Brother” - whether it be traffic cameras, street corner cameras, “smart” electric meters, “smart” thermostats, and just about every “smart” device in your home, all of which possess the potential to “spy” on you via video, audio, electric usage, and more, this goes even further by taking advantage of your personal WiFi router to trace your steps through your own home.
Since WiFi signals can penetrate walls, your entire house can be virtually mapped by a single router, just like a fisherman’s sonar can map the bottom of a lake and locate and track fish. While those with good intent posit the positive potential of the technology, like (from the article) “Elderly Care and Safety,” “Intrusion Detection,” and “Healthcare” (remote monitoring of patient mobility), like most other technology, it can be used for more pernicious purposes by those with evil intent.
One of the most disturbing statements in the article is that “unlike traditional cameras, WiFi imaging is capable of penetrating walls and obstructions, making it particularly valuable for monitoring people without compromising their privacy.” How can anyone consider being monitored not a matter of “compromising their privacy?” Do we all want to wear ankle monitors as if we’re under house arrest? Why then do so many so easily offer up their privacy on the altar of convenience?
Can you imagine your home being monitored thusly by your own WiFi only to have your router hacked and used by thieves to case your house and infer patterns of times when everyone is out? Or government monitoring gatherings in your home. Combine this technology with other “smart” devices, and you have a recipe for unmitigated violation of your right to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure (see: The Fourth Amendment). All of the other concerns I mentioned above also violate the Fourth Amendment, but this takes it a huge step further.
Of course, to some degree, this is already happening, and chances are, you permitted it without even realizing or truly thinking about it. Check your phone and, unless your like me and have been refusing OS updates on your mobile phone since early 2020 (and are willing to accept the limitations of apps that will continue to work), you’ll find a Contact Tracing feature. Yes, you can “disable” it, but look at the wording. You can disable notifications - but guess what? Your phone is still sending and receiving Bluetooth beacons, and while it is allegedly anonymized information, government can use that to track with whom you gather, when, and for how long. Now, add to that WiFi imaging, and you can now be labeled an insurrectionist or extremist for associating with other people who hold conservative values.
Or, maybe FBI, ATF, or another government agency can tap in and determine when you’re home and in a position to offer the least resistance possible while they serve a warrant. There are so many things that can go wrong with this, the misuses are too numerous to count. We have, as a society, become far too dependent upon, and complacent about, technology. Most readily give up privacy in the name of convenience. This is not the proper functioning of a free society.
Open your eyes. Say no to government intrusion, and intrusion by “smart” devices. You don’t need your refrigerator to tell you the weather. You don’t need the electric company to adjust your thermostat. You don’t need Alexa to turn on your lights. Whatever you do, do not install a WiFi router in your home that has AI imaging capability. Break free from Big Brother while there is yet time, or you may never have the opportunity.
*There are many other articles on the web regarding WiFi imaging that are easily found with a search. Here are just a few others that you may wish to read:
WiFi Signals Used To "See" People Inside Rooms
Might as well build a house with glass walls. {smile}
Without digging into this... would it matter if you had your own WiFi or if surrounding or portable WiFi was used to "map" you? We can get excessively paranoid and still fail to stop the problem!
No matter what we do, we are being monitored. Every debit/credit transaction is monitored and logged. Every phone call is logged. Every SMART device is being monitored - those "RING" and bluetooth security systems? PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Using one of those Apple wrist devices to "count steps," monitor blood pressure, heart rate, etc..........it's all a source of information that is being harvested whether it's legal or illegal.
The alternative is to turn everything off, head to the hills, live off of the grid (entirely, not YouTube-style), hunt meat, grow produce, and deed the acreage in the name of a fairy-tale character. I can't think of any other possible solution to the growing threat of technology and, in particular, artificial intelligence. Skeeeeery times, folks. Skeery times.