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Cake day: July 22nd, 2023
  • mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.orgtoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•Is WiFi calling a decent alternative to VoIP?
    3·
    16 days ago

    Yeah I would also want that but a radio network without sector and base station sectioning but it is unfeasible. Frequency spectrum is limited and scarce, sectoring is used in order to share the same frequencies between neighboring base stations. Thus a rough positioning is intrinsic on the system.

    Completely anonymous radio link requires a unique radio " address " for each terminal. This is not possible because you need multiple base stations in order to cover big areas, thus you need multiple limited frequencies.

    WiFi is a good example. It’s concept is very similar to cellular networks but in small scale (well or it was designed for small scale). WiFi access points suppose they have a more or less clear frequency (from other WiFi stations), with that in consideration they can search for any device that responds for a given address.

    But notice that in the modern days new WiFi standards have come up. This is because now we have tons of WiFi AP per building, per house, the freq band is limited too. Modern WiFi implementations are copying the cellular designs with OFDMA. They are starting to use sectoring and MIMO techniques in order to separate the WiFi coverage in sectors.

    From a telecommunications point of view cellular networks are better and more efficient that legacy WiFi implementations.

    The problem is that because of this some knowledge about the positioning of the terminal can be known. But so do it with modern WiFi.

    Again the problem is not the technology but how we use it. Do we have laws that respect user privacy? Nowadays you can geolocate someone by their IP because most ISP nodes are gelocated in order to map network shortages.

    Tracking does not depend on you after all. Any station to which you are connected knows you are near them and since most stations.know where they are they also rougly know where are you.

    The problem resides in the way we protect our data. Should users be linked to terminals? Well always that you identify yourself from a terminal you are somehow telling that you ARE that terminal.

    The problem here is trying to separate the user part from the rest. We must focus on techniques that allow a user to identify themselves in an a remote service without linking it to its real terminal. Tor does that in a way by separating layer by layer.

    Is a complex deal. Just be aware of this issues and try to not be fooled by the WiFi VoIP is the new thing super mega privacy. Because when you think you are safe is when you get stabbed in the back.