Tracking you with accelerometer signatures

Yet another latent unique identifier with horrifying consequences.

Adding sensors to our computers revolutionized them. I remember buying my first computer paddles, my first mic, my first webcam, and the incredible new features unlocked by giving computers a way to sense and respond to the physical world.

Today, our devices are stuffed with sensors to beggar the imagination. My latest phone has four cameras, multiple mics, thermal sensors, and, of course, an accelerometer that lets the system measure how it’s moving from moment to moment.

Device security and privacy models treat cameras and mics as sensitive and control how apps access them, but accelerometers are treated as utilities, the kind of thing that apps should be able to tap into at will without risk to the user.

That’s a bad assumption.

In “Privacy Implications of Accelerometer Data: A Review of Possible Inferences,” a trio of researchers from the Technical University of Berlin document the surprising ways in which acclerometer data can be used to infer sensitive facts about users.

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3309074.3309076

Co-author Jacob Leon Kröger did a great job of breaking down the team’s findings, and…