2
Are wi-fi hotspots/repeaters a good way to mitigate privacy issues from routers? (thebrainbin.org)
submitted 1 week ago by Auster@thebrainbin.org to c/privacy@lemmy.world
3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Are wi-fi hotspots/repeaters a good way to mitigate privacy issues from routers?

Routers from what I understand have a few way to monitor people around, like radio-based sonar, logging and informing of every device that connects to it, etc.

If wanting to ensure some more #privacy, would it be a good option to keep the router as far as possible from the common areas of the house, so what I can "see" is blurry at best, while using repeaters like old phones on vanilla AOSP and SBC devices?

That's not my area so maybe I'm going way off in my assumptions, but I'd think that these repeaters wouldn't bridge sonar functions, they wouldn't report on devices connected through them, their systems wouldn't be a black box unlike the router itself, data packets sent from devices with VPN would remain encrypted while they go through the repeaters and router's route, and with ethernet cables could allow for an specially long distance.

So... Would it be an interesting option?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] AxisExperience9@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I think Xfinity routers began doing that actually. Here's directly from their website: https://www.xfinity.com/hub/smart-home/wifi-motion

If there wasn't any value in it I don't see why it's getting implemented at all, but it is and it exists.

I hate to use the slippery slope argument but I'm tired of forcing myself to believe that these private companies are moral have any reason to protect us. They don't. It feels like everything is about power and control, from flock and axon to this router tracking shit. if it doesn't make sense, it's because it's not supposed to, and the feature being implemented has ulterior motives

Edit: and yes I know they say they don't track your movements but these companies lie all the time. I'm not just going to take that at face value. It's time to start treating these companies like the biggest liars on earth (because they kind of are) until they've earned our trust back

[-] CameronDev@programming.dev 0 points 1 week ago

Detecting motion is relatively easy, but actual positioning would require knowledge of where the WiFi router is placed within the home, and where the other static WiFi devices are. So position detection is realistically about as much as they could do without calibration.

The xfinity one is more about smart home stuff, and is opt-in (and it's a fair point to distrust that).

The reason I don't think they are tracking motion/position within your home is that there just isnt any useful way to turn that into a targeted ad, and therefore has no viable revenue path. At best, they could count how many times you go to the bathroom, maybe target a metamucil ad, but its so niche (and likely extremely noisy data) that its just not useful.

They know when your at home already, as your phone will connect to your network, and your network traffic (VPN/encrypted or not) will spike. They don't need WiFi positioning to determine that.

I'm not saying people should just trust things are okay, its more that there are much higher priorities to tackle. WiFi positioning is way down the list of realistic concerns.

this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2026
2 points (100.0% liked)

Privacy

10713 readers
66 users here now

A community for Lemmy users interested in privacy

Rules:

  1. Be civil
  2. No spam posting
  3. Keep posts on-topic
  4. No trolling

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
iopq@lemmy.world