This anti-tracking tool ensures that you are being followed

Matt Edmondson, a A federal agent with the Department of Homeland Security for the past 21 years, he got a call for help last year. A friend who works in another government department, he won’t say which one — was concerned that someone might be tailing them when they met with a secret informant linked to a terrorist organization. If you’ve been following them, their cover may have been blown. “It was really a matter of life and death,” Edmondson said.

“If you’re trying to tell if you’re being followed, there are ways to detect tracking,” Edmondson said. If you’re driving, you can change lanes, make a U-turn, or change your lane on the freeway. It helps you know if each car is following you. But it wasn’t emotional enough, says Edmondson. “He had those skills, but he was looking for an electronic complement,” Edmondson said. “He was concerned about the safety of the confidential informant.”

After finding no tools that could help, Edmondson, a hacker and digital forensics expert, decided to build his own anti-surveillance tool. The Raspberry Pi-powered system, which can be carried around or placed in a car, scans for nearby devices and notifies you if the same phone has been found multiple times in the last 20 minutes. In theory, it could warn you if you’re being pushed by a car. Edmondson built the system using a total of about $200 worth of parts and will present his research project this week at the Black Hat Security conference in Las Vegas. He also sourced the root code.

In recent years there has been an explosion in the number of ways people are being monitored by domestic abusers, stalkers, or underworld government-sponsored surveillance. Tracking can be software or hardware based. Stickyware and spyware that can be installed directly on people’s phones can give attackers access to all your location data, messages, photos, videos, and more, and physical trackers—like Apple’s AirTags—have been used to track people’s whereabouts in real time. . (Apple added some anti-tracking tools to AirTags in response to criticism.)

A quick search online reveals many tracking devices, easy to purchase. “There’s a lot to spying on people, and very little to help people who worry they’re being spied on,” Edmondson said.

The in-home system works by scanning the surrounding wireless devices and then checking the logs to see if they have been detected in the last 20 minutes. It’s designed to be used while people are on the move, rather than sitting in a coffee shop where it can take too many false readings.

An anti-surveillance device that can fit in a shoebox-sized container is made up of a few parts. The Raspberry Pi 3 runs the software, the Wi-Fi card searches for nearby devices, a small waterproof case protects it, and it powers the portable charging system. The touch screen displays the alerts the device issues. Every alert can be a sign that you’re stuck.