Researchers use Bluetooth to track festival goers, make fun of their 'hippie dancing'
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Jul 4th 2009 4:04AM
posted Jul 4th 2009 4:04AM
A team from the University of Ghent in Belgium is lacing the site of this year's Rock Werchter festival -- Brussel's equivalent of Woodstock '97 -- with Bluetooth scanners (36 total, they cover a range of 30 meters each). While you're rocking out to the likes of Bloc Party and Mastodon, the researchers will be tracking your every movement, whether it be to the mosh pit, the beer tent, or the Job Johnny. As you've probably assumed, the researchers are primarily looking for ways that retailers can monitor customer flow (read: sell you more crap) although there are certainly going to be results applicable to the world of law enforcement. Of course, this is Bluetooth: you always have the option of disabling it on your phone, and if you don't they'll only be able to discern your MAC address. Besides, if you're not doing anything illegal, you have nothing to fear from the surveillance state -- right? And if you are up to no good, well, that's why they invented the Dazer Lazer.
cameraless, bluetoothless, anti-establishment (?) phones FTW.
Or, you could turn off your bluetooth...
They already did similar research at malls using the regular transmitter signals of phones, so no turning BT off won't do it.
@Wwhat they specifically said that the tracking is Bluetooth-based, so turning it off is sufficient to evade that experiment. FUD much?
does this has to do with the new iPhone 3GS where S stands for speed?
bluurp
Next step: GPS equipped chips implanted into our brains keeping track of our movements and transmitting all naughty thoughts to the authorities?
unneeded; we already give our personal information, interest, desires and life stories plainly and freely on social networks and blogs ;)
Ohhh MAH FACE!
There was no Woodstock '97.
I thought hippies died off back in Y2K.
Weren't they the ones saying the world was gonna end, man?
They're still around. Ever been to Southern California?
It's not Brussel's version of Woodstock. Werchter is a tiny village that changes in a different world for those 4 days. The festival also recieved the Arthur award for best festival in the world 4 times in the last 6 years. Some people whine about the ticket price being €169 but it's still cheaper than Glastonbury or Roskilde.
Sadly enough I couldn't be there 'cause of my summerjob.. Ah well, there's still enough options with Pukkelpop, Dour Festival, ...
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Werchter)
@dsteve303, just smoke your blunt like 3 feet away from the police and you'll be safe ;). everything's easy going
Dranouter all the way! Werchter's line-up is shit this year, and I'd rather stay at home, watching the live stream then to stay there in the bloody heat in between thousands of sweaty people and then wait in line for 3 hours to get to the next concert
The traffic on Thursday was absolute murder - bloody 2-hours to get home from Brussels Airport despite trying avoid the entire area by going via Mechelen. However, I do wish I was going to see Metallica play on Sunday...
Just came back from Werchter, went only the first day (Pendulum, Prodigy, Oasis) .. Fuck this, they didn't say anything about that in the festival, there are boards saying " there is a chance you'll be filmed" but there's no mention of "we are tracking your every movement" .. Fuck you city of Ghent i hate you.
Ps: The concerts were awesome
I really don't see what's all this bitching about :/
it's just research on how people move during the festival
This has nothing to do with big brother, your privacy is not at stake here.
But I guess some people here will take every opportunity to bash "the man" that's keeping them down duuuuude.
Yeah it's not like it''s ever possible to link a MAC to a specific phone is it, except it is trivial....
Well at least you can't link a specific person to a phone can you... except you can.
But I'm sure you don't see it, I'm sure you don't see a lot of things, I'm sure your government and shady advertisers will bless you, and rob you too, of your money and freedom, or rather they'll 'enhance your poverty and liberate you from decisions and annoying possibility to move freely' as you would put it.
It's research... done by a local university...
I'm not saying the government is all flowers and sunshine, but I'm not a conspiracy nut that sees the government as the big monster either.
If you really believe in such a thing, why don't you get rid of your cellphones to start with, because cellphone tracking has been possible much longer than just bluetooth.
As a matter of fact, get of the internet, QUICK, they might be monitoring your every movement.
AND CAN YOU BE REALLY SAFE IN YOUR OWN HOME? AAAAH! QUICK, RUN AWAY, START LIVING IN THE WILD!
@ Mistabeen
Exactly! If you're concerned about Big Brother, then don't buy a traceable microphone which you keep in your pocket all the time.
While they couldn't tie your phone to a MAC address before the fact, it is entirely plausible they could subpoena your phone as evidence if you were under investigation (or whatever the Belgian equivalent of subpoenaing evidence is) and retroactively determine your movement at the festival.
I don't, carry a cellphone that is.
Oh and most people who've been to more than one protest in europe also learned to never carry a cellphone when they go to a protest, not that this festival was related to any such protests of course.
rofl.
Incidentally, you should hear what they do with protesters in brussels that do protest against something they don't want protests against, and after hearing that dare to criticise iran, ever again.
are you going to tell us or are we supposed to think they accept the protest and shut down all related research?
Last seen they block the bloody streets for miles with tractors (about 2-weeks ago). I am now buying my milk from anywhere but Belgium just because the farmers annoyed me with their protest. Inconveniencing the public isn't the best way to go about drumming up support for your cause.
Are you Zack De La Rocha?
Well when some protester wanted to protest against the islamification of europe in brussel, the capital of europe, they were told they could not, basically because they are afraid of the islamics.
So when they decided to call a protest anyway the cops took people (of all ages from 17 to in their 60's) off normal trains and buses and the street that 'looked like they might be protesters' to prevent any protest starting, they locked them up for 6 to 8 hours, without getting drinks mind you, then when they were finally released they were told they could not log any objection because they were never arrested just 'detained' and there were no logs kept of it.
And that is just a peaceful example, there are many other instances where the cops used batons too, and there were cases were they did the same lockup thing but not only didn't get something to drink but were not allowed to go to the toilet for that time, they had to either suffer or soil themselves or their holding cell.
This is democratic europe for you, free to speak, if it's something the authorities allow you to say that is, else you are nightless 'scum'
You can read similar stories from protesters in new-york, seems that if you protest something too 'sensitive' most of your rights are suddenly forfeited and you feel you are in former east germany, and that that system is active in the entire 'free' western world.
And no I'm not Zack De La Rocha.
You should read the PATRIOT act - it is spine chilling what is actually allowed in the US now.
It is spine-chilling what has always been allowed in the US, as any gay or black person will testify.
@Rebajas I couldn't believe he really wrote that.
@dsteve303 They can, they will and they most certainly do. But I did enjoy reading your comment, it reminded me of myself before I started paying attention to politics.
"Besides, if you're not doing anything illegal, you have nothing to fear from the surveillance state -- right?"
Hahahahaaaaaaaaaa, you U.S. Citizens do love youre conspiracy theories. Allways so scared and so paranoïd.
Belgium isn't London. We don't nearly have that much CCTV, we are not a police-state.
If you really want to be sure that no-one's tracking you via your cellphone do the following:
Wrap your mobile phone with aluminium foil, leave no holes and voila no signal gets in or out.
Man, man, man, ik hoop dat dat zinnetje een grap was, een hele flauwe grap.
Besides which, most of London's CCTV is in private hands, not the authorities'.
this is actually NOT germany's equivalent to woodstock... this happens every year, woodstock doesnt
Indeed - it's Belgium's. Germany can either get its own or simply invade again...
Put your phone down the back of your pants, about asshole level. Bend over a couple times... Bet they stop tracking you.
... is that Molly Wood?
I wouldn't call it anything nefarious if you're conveniently walking around with an electronic device that sends out a unique signal for them to track. It's really not that difficult to do, and a few hackers with a free weekend and a bunch of computers could implement such a system with little trouble, if they wished, without breaking any laws or doing anything but looking at what bluetooth address is where at any given time. I have my BT turned off on my phone by default, and since I don't use a headset, haven't turned it on for about two years now.
Geeezzzuuusss... This "Big Brother" meme is getting old.
Unless you people are actually walking around in a burka, don't own property, and pay only in cash, you're 'on the grid'...and those people looking at the grid probably have some kind of company logo associated with it.
So go turn yourself into a Muslim women if you're so damn paranoid...
A grid has points, but this is getting more than a grid, more like a smooth suffocating layer of plastic than a grid.
And yeah I bet they track everybody EXCEPT people in burkas, the one group they should be tracking if any.
Remember that news story how that wanted terrorist guy in britain escaped by putting on a burka and happily taking a plane out of the country? Hilarious and sad at the same time..
It's a private event that you agree to go to. If you don't like it, then don't go to it. We're not talking about putting these on street corners.
Of course this would "fly" in many US events, depending on the average capabilities of the attendees.
hey Joseph, why should someone, who isn't doing anything illegal, not be worried about this? You're being picked at by vulture marketers so they can exploit you and sell you more goods. You have such a stupid and typical argument with not a thought in it.
They already do this here in the US. A lot of different systems use this type of tracking. Also nowhere in the article did it say they were matching names to mac addresses. They are basically just watching dots on a map looking at travel paths.
I'm currently thinkering with same technology - just recently created J2ME app.
It work on most phones and can scan any active BlueTooth devices around and then upload info into cloud - meanwhile getting name from it.
Fun nuance that requesting phone name from cloud working faster that to get it with local request to device.
BlueTooth radius is really small so there no real problem to link exact people to exact address and then get from cloud info about where someone was in particular moment in any time.
Though if you don't want to be tracked just turn off your BT.
I noticed though that about 10-30% of peoples around me have active BT devices. =)
If you want to try such technology you can register to beta test of my app there:
http://spy.game-rate.com/
W00T, it was so awsome
I can imagine that they want to know how people move trough crowds, man there where a lot of people ;)
But I didn't have a phone with me so #care :P