Indoor positioning and RF interference diagnosis using Wi‑Fi signals
Problem
There is a lack of high‑precision, customizable and privacy‑respecting wireless signal positioning tools; existing APIs provide overly coarse coordinates and many platforms track users via persistent identifiers, leading users to seek self‑measurement and interference diagnosis capabilities.
Pain points
- Insufficient positioning accuracy (overly coarse coordinates)
- Privacy leakage risks (concern about tracking)
- Missing mechanism to opt out via custom SSID (need for _nomap)
- Need to diagnose Wi‑Fi signal interference
Questions to verify
- Would you be willing to pay for such a positioning/interference diagnosis tool?
- Do you frequently experience Wi‑Fi signal interference or inaccurate positioning?
- How would you improve the accuracy or privacy protection of existing positioning APIs?
Evidence
quote · @Anonymous
I started rotating my BSSID weekly after I learned Apple and Google abused it to track the location of people and devices.Permanent hardware or software IDs, such as the Windows GUID or machine-id on Linux (systemd) are inevitably abused for surveillance sooner or later.
fact · @Anonymous
Worth noting that the coordinates for cell towers returned by the WLOC API are coarse enough to be just about useless for locating towers. For APs it’s much better but still not great.
quote · @Anonymous
Looks like an open version of SkyHook from way back in 2003: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyhook_WirelessFor a while they had a paid program, I had a Windows Mobile app I could run with an external GPS dongle that would record wifi APs and location, upload to skyhook, who would occasionally cut me a check for my trouble. I made tens of dollars!
fact · @Anonymous
Apple says you can opt out of this collection by appending _nomap to the SSID:https://support.apple.com/en-us/102515> The owner of a Wi-Fi access point can opt it out of Apple's Location Services by changing the access point's SSID (name) to end with "_nomap." For example, "Access_Point" would be changed to "Access_Point_nomap."
Disclaimer: this card is distilled by AI from community discussions as “pain point evidence”. It is a starting point for need analysis and validation, not a “validated market need”. AI has analytical limits; please open the original discussion above to manually verify before key decisions.