Blue chipping

[william northcote]

A new craze of mobile phone mayhem has hit London, England.

It was reported on the news on BBC London a craze of bluechipping. This is using the technology of the blue tooth chip currently in mobile (cellular) phones in the UK.

Now, blue tooh allows you to link up to a computer from 10m away and saves on the fiddling around with USB cables ETC. But it seems that London people have become a little sneaky in the new technology.

All people do is they can take a picture of you with their camera built into the phone and then ask the phone to make a call to the nearest blue tooth phone user. They then get a picture of thenselves with no idea of who or what took it.

BBC London tried it in a cafe, and managed to worry a blue tooth owner when he got message saying "Hello from BBC London".

That is the upside, the downside is that it may be used by people who, although may be fun, can cause worry in others. As the phone messages does not come with a return call number or any form of ID, anonymous messaging stalker style.

any thoughts on this bizarre subject?

[TimoS]

Originally posted by Will Northcote

All people do is they can take a picture of you with their camera built into the phone and then ask the phone to make a call to the nearest blue tooth phone user. They then get a picture of thenselves with no idea of who or what took it.


Hmm, interesting. Although I think that whoever receives this kind of Bluetooth connection has to approve it their mobile first (and have the connection active in the first place), at least that's what is required whenever I connect my laptop and my phone, so unless you accept the connection the connection, you won't be bothered with these photos. I haven't tried a mobile to mobile bluetooth connection, and I don't think I'll try it at work, because on our floor there's bound to be at least half a dozen active connections within 10 meters from my office

[David T Anderson]

Heheheh...when you go out in public, you are not absolutely safe or private. You may _feel_ that you are, and relatively speaking you may be _reasonably_ safe and private, but...read the previous sentence.

Wireless technology is not absolutely secure. It may be made _relatively_ secure and you may _feel_ relatively secure but...see the previous sentence.

Welcome to life in the 21st Century.... Keep your eyes open and your fly zipped.

[william northcote]

the fact that it only works within 10m is a bit disconcerting if you are getting stalked. You then know that the person is within 10m and is closer than you think.

But on the fun side, it does make a good story for the local London news :D made me smile.

[rinpoche]

Other than feeling a little weird that somebody close to me is sending me pictures of myself, I don't see a potential for incredible harm.

It's people close to me taking pictures that I don't know about that's a real problem.

If someone is stalking this way - at least you'd be alerted that there's someone potentially dangerous within 10 meters of you.

[tb055]

I believe it's also know as bluejacking, check out the link for more

http://www.bluejackq.com/

[william northcote]

Yep that's the one :D