Washington,Now Smart phone leave
your fingerprints all over – from computer keyboards or door knobs – but do you
know that your smart phone leaves real-time fingerprints that cannot be
removed?
Puzzled?
Not any more. Three Indian-origin researchers have demonstrated that the
accelerometers used in mobile devices possess unique trackable fingerprints
reported here.These fingerprints stem from subtle idiosyncrasies in device
manufacturing and are reflected in the unprotected data shared with numerous
applications.Even if you erase the app in the phone, or even erase and
reinstall all software, the fingerprint still stays inherent.“When you
manufacture the hardware, the factory cannot produce the identical thing in
millions. So these imperfections create fingerprints,” explained associate
professor Romit Roy Choudhury from University of South Carolina (USC).
Along
with graduate students Sanorita Dey and Nirupam Roy, Choudhury found that these
fingerprints exist within smart phone sensors.The researchers focused
specifically on the accelerometer, a sensor that tracks three-dimensional
movements of the phone – essential for countless applications, including
pedometers, sleep monitoring, mobile gaming.The researchers tested more than
100 devices over the course of nine months that included 80 standalone
accelerometer chips used in popular smart phones, 25 Android phones and two
tablets.With 96 percent accuracy, the researchers could discriminate one sensor
from another.
“We do
not need to know any other information about the phone – no phone number or SIM
card number. Just by looking at the data, we can tell you which device it is
coming from. It is almost like another identifier,” Dey informed.The research
also suggests that other sensors in the phone – gyroscopes, magnetometers,
microphones, cameras and so forth – could possess the same types of
idiosyncratic differences.
For
smartphone users and e-book readers, smartwatch wearers and tablet devotees,
perhaps the most critical take-home message is the importance of vigilance, the
researchers noted.
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