mikaela.github.io/blog/_posts/2015-11-29-SSID_optout_nomap.md

Anxiety is now focusing to WLAN mapping & key sharing and how easy it is to locate people.

Today I renamed my primary WLAN network (hereafter referred as SSID) to SSID_optout_nomap.

• _optout when included in WLAN network name should opt your network out of Microsoft’s WiFi Sense.
  • TL;DR: when enabled all your Facebook/Outlook/Skype contacts can connect to your encrypted WLAN without knowing the password (which they don’t get).
    • I would be interested in seeing piracy case where the network owner is innocent and threat letter was received about random contact downloading illegal content. I am most interested in what would happen, would the network owner be able to proof that they didn’t do it, but instead their network was “hacked” which wasn’t the case as they were using Windows 10 or Windows Phone.
• _nomap opt out of Google Maps accuracy increaser & Mozilla Location Services & WiGLE & others.

While I think that MAC based opting out would be better than making SSID messy, most parties doing the mapping only accept SSID and I hope all will take _nomap as mark of not wanting to participate.

I also run openwireless.org hotspot and I like the idea, but as the SSID for it must be openwireless.org I had to leave it. I still belong to the movement as I still have open guest network without captive portal or time limit.

The network is now called as openwireless_nomap and openwireless5_nomap (dualband router and 5 means 5 GHz). I hope that the type of users doesn’t change by that change and in case it’s abused, it’s existence is easier to proof than that my private network was hacked.

I encourage you to read about the Open Wireless Movement and join by opening a guest network without captive portal or time limit and preferably naming it as openwireless.org. In case you have similar issues like me, openwireless or openwireless_nomap are also OK, the idea is what counts.

It’s openwireless_nomap and not openwireless_optout_nomap, because there is no need to opt out of sharing passwords on open (no password) networks. Also the order _optout_nomap comes from reddit.

The other thing that I mentioned in the beginning is how I am worried on how easy it is to geolocate people.

1. Start a discussion which with you somehow receive information on SSIDs that people use or if they are part of openwireless.org.
2. Go to their GitHub/Twitter/Facebook/whatever profiles and check where they live or just get that information in the discussion too.
3. Go to WiGLE.net and go where your target lives and enter their SSID to the right and click filter and you will see dot on the map where they live.

I don’t like this and I don’t doubt that there are people who would cause me (physical) harm (read the rest of this site/blog or then just be on common IRC channels and see as I make enemies).

WiGLE respects your privacy. To have records of your access point removed from our database, or if you have any questions or suggestions, send an email to: WiGLE-admin[at]WiGLE.net (please include BSSID (MAC) in removal requests). We’re also on IRC: at WiGLE.net:6667

To my opt-out response I received the following message implying that they do support _nomap/_optout:

Those networks delisted as requested. We periodically purge the _optout / _nomap networks.

-bobzilla

I hope this blog post at least communicates what I am trying to say even if it looks very messy to me and I haven’t even took any anxiety medicines last night or today so my head should be working a lot better than it currently does.

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2019-01-17: I don’t know how to start updating this post, but I would like to add a few things ~three years later:

• There is no need for the _optout part since 2016, see e.g. KrebsonSecurity.
• Christian Haschek’s blog showed me that people are actually doing checking WLAN locations from WiGLE and it’s not only my mental health or anxiety more than three years ago.
  • The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet
• I nowadays represent 5 GHz networks as SSID_fast_nomap, because fast is more obvious to not technical people wondering which one to pick compared to the number, but in public places I drop the _nomap as SSID works as a free advertisement.
  • I think I copied this idea from someone at IRC, but I have forgotten whom and it’s possible they wouldn’t even wish to be attributed.