Bluetooth-Powered Location-Based Advertising -- Courtesy of Land Rover

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/002287.html' target='_blank'>http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/ar...ves/002287.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Land Rover was able to start transferring data to my phone without my explicit permission because I'd left it on the "Discoverable" setting, meaning that other nearby Bluetooth devices were able to detect its presence. I guess I'd been lulled into not looking at this as a security issue because hookups of two Bluetooth devices normally require a pairing process that requires human intervention, even though I know of the hackish prank known as Bluejacking. But it hadn't dawned on me that a discoverable phone could be discovered by an advertising broadcast."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/ekkie_landrover_bt_200606.jpg" /><br /><br />You may recall a post from about a month ago titled <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=48712">Location-based Advertisements Sent to Your Cellphone?</a>. It referenced a French advertising company looking to push ads to your phone via Bluetooth. Personally, many of us were not amused by this concept, but I did took solace in the idea that I probably won't have to deal with this anytime in the immediate future. I guess that lasted all of about five weeks!<br /><br />The good news is that you can avoid this headache by making your phone undiscoverable... and note, this article is proof-positive that your phone does not require human intervention to accept incoming transmissions from an unknown source (helps highlight the concerns raised last week regarding <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=49293">Bluetooth security flaws</a>). Moral of the story? Make those phones of yours undiscoverable (and please remove any thoughts of providing "GTA" treatment to any Land Rover exec you may run into in the future)!!

[bbarker]

What is "GTA treatment"?

[Janak Parekh]

What is "GTA treatment"?
Grand Theft Auto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_%28series%29), most likely.

--janak

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Sorry about that. GTA = Grand Theft Auto... the highly controversial and popular video game franchise. The methods of negotiations in those games tend not to involve a lot of actual conversation.

[haesslich]

Sorry about that. GTA = Grand Theft Auto... the highly controversial and popular video game franchise. The methods of negotiations in those games tend not to involve a lot of actual conversation.

Translation: It involves beating, shooting, and generally messing people up.

:twisted:

[stlbud]

Isn't this in violation of the Patriot Act. You know the part where they can arrest a guy sitting in his car because he accessed someone's open WiFi network. Bluetooth is a network connection too. So, Land Rover should be taken to task for attacking your network.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Isn't this in violation of the Patriot Act. You know the part where they can arrest a guy sitting in his car because he accessed someone's open WiFi network. Bluetooth is a network connection too. So, Land Rover should be taken to task for attacking your network.
Interesting question. My uneducated guess here is that someone who steals WiFi bandwidth is generally stealing something that you pay a service charge for (high-speed internet access)... of course, the service provider will typically be upset by this prospect as well.

In this case, a Bluetooth message is a direct peer-to-peer connection that doesn't play to the same concept of "stealing" as with the WiFi example.

[gilbertovp]

The problem is many people dont have a clue what bluetooth is, and in some phones it's on discoverable mode by default. The first thing i do when i buy a new phone or PDA is to check the bluetooth configuration. I think the cell phone makers and operators should sell their devices with the discoverable mode off. Just my 2 cents...

[Mark Kenepp]

Isn't this in violation of the Patriot Act. You know the part where they can arrest a guy sitting in his car because he accessed someone's open WiFi network. Bluetooth is a network connection too. So, Land Rover should be taken to task for attacking your network.
Interesting question. My uneducated guess here is that someone who steals WiFi bandwidth is generally stealing something that you pay a service charge for (high-speed internet access)... of course, the service provider will typically be upset by this prospect as well.

In this case, a Bluetooth message is a direct peer-to-peer connection that doesn't play to the same concept of "stealing" as with the WiFi example.

Getting of topic here but isn't the Patriot Act more about security then money?

Also, according to this article (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121747,tk,dn070805X,00.asp) posted on PPCT here (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=41436), accessing an open network without the networks owners knowledge is illegal in Florida. I do not know if there are similar laws in other states.

I don't think that this falls under the Patriot Act at all.

Now, back to the show...

This type of location based service to me is little more than telemarketing and a similar annoyance. Unlike typical telemarketing, it is easier to avoid getting a bluetooth message on your handheld than it is to prevent unsolicited phone calls.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Getting of topic here but isn't the Patriot Act more about security then money?
I believe you're right... I was thinking about that exact Florida example and the legality / illegality of using someone's WiFi connection... I didn't put two-and-two together on the Patriot Act reference.

Also, according to this article (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121747,tk,dn070805X,00.asp) posted on PPCT here (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=41436), accessing an open network without the networks owners knowledge is illegal in Florida. I do not know if there are similar laws in other states.
That's my point... I'm not sure if this is the same as sending a peer-to-peer message to a phone. This is where I was thinking more in terms of the "stealing a service that is paid for by someone else"... it's a different paradigm between the WiFi and BT example.

[thefunkunfaked]

time for some serious registry editing. :D

dirty advertising scum

how about i set my device to crash their billboard upon discovery :twisted:

[Brad Adrian]

Like a lot of interesting and potentially helpful uses of technology, the thought of this type of advertising gave execs goosebumps a few years ago when they recognized its potential. Too bad, though, that it's not being implemented in a smart way or in a way that's within the control of the consumer.

But I guess the thought of letting consumers control how they digest advertising is a real buzzkill for those same advertising execs.