Wi-Fi signals could be used to uniquely identify individuals — WhoFi complements biometrics prompting privacy fears
Researchers at La Sapienza University in Rome have created WhoFi, a system which claims to be able to identify individuals by analyzing Wi‑Fi signals.
The system tracks people by interpreting how their presence disrupts Wi‑Fi patterns, offering a potential alternative to conventional biometric methods.
The technology works by examining Channel State Information, or CSI, which measures changes in Wi‑Fi signals caused by people and objects - and a deep neural network then interprets these disturbances as individual fingerprints.
The team behind WhoFi includes Danilo Avola, Daniele Pannone, Dario Montagnini and Emad Emam, who previously proposed a system called EyeFi in 2020. The new system is more accurate and capable of re‑identifying people via non‑visual biometric signatures embedded in CSI.
WhoFi does not rely on cameras or physical contact. It needs only an existing Wi‑Fi network to sense human presence and movement.
