[privacy] Nike+ IPod = Surveillance

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72202-0.html?tw=wn_index_15

By Annalee  <http://www.wired.com/support/feedback.html?headline=Nike+ IPod
=
Surveillance&story_id=72202&section_path=/technology&ftype=feedback&msg_type
=1&aid=1373> Newitz|
<http://www.wired.com/ly/wired/shared/images/common/icon_story_morepgs.gif>
Also <http://www.wired.com/storylist/1373-0-0.html>  by this reporter
02:00 AM Nov, 30, 2006

If you enhance your workout with the new Nike+ iPod Sport Kit, you may be
making yourself a surveillance target.

A report <http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/systems/privacy.html>  from
four University of Washington researchers to be released Thursday reveals
that security flaws in the new RFID-powered device from Nike and Apple make
it easy for tech-savvy stalkers, thieves and corporations to track your
movements. With just a few hundred dollars and a little know-how, someone
could even plot your running routes on a Google map without your knowledge.

The Nike+ iPod <http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/>  gives runners real-time
updates about the speed and length of their workouts via a small RFID device
that fits into the soles of Nike shoes, and broadcasts workout data to a
small receiver plugged into an iPod Nano.

While this setup sounds convenient and cool, it didn't sit well with Scott
Saponas, a computer science graduate student at the University of Washington
in Seattle. After enjoying his Nike+ iPod for a few months, Saponas began to
suspect there might be other, more nefarious uses for the gear.

He brought his concerns to University of Washington computer science
professor Yoshi Kohno and fellow graduate students Carl Hartung and Jonathan
Lester. After just a few weeks of tinkering, the four researchers discovered
that the Nike+ iPod is, as Kohno put it, "an easy surveillance device."

The first problem is that the RFID in the shoe sensor contains its own
on-board power source, essentially turning your running shoe into a small
radio station capable of being received from up to 60 feet away, with a
signal powerful enough to be picked up from a passing car.

...

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