A Data Protection-Compliant Framework for Wi-Fi-Based Location Tracking (in Law Enforcement)

Law enforcement agencies continue to deploy new surveillance, identification and tracking technologies that tend to intrude on privacy. These include Wi-Fi-based location tracking methods that take advantage of the fact that Wi-Fi enabled devices exchange data with each other even when they are not connected. At very short intervals, probe requests are sent to all surrounding devices. The contents of the data packets include the MAC addresses and preferred SSID lists, which can provide information about the daily behaviour of the users. The scenario to be considered is initially limited and, due to technical and legal complexity, narrowed down to the domestic domain and the privacy issues are discussed using the example of intrusion detection. In view of the difficulty of defining the perimeter, the spatial and temporal limitations depending on the personal data and, above all, the information obligations and opt-out solutions will be discussed.