Not so for Apple devices, apparently, including iPhones, Mac or Apple Watches. On both Windows and Android, switching off Bluetooth in Settings or in the Quick Settings or Taskbar should limit Bluetooth 'beaconing.' To turn it off, go into Settings > Privacy > Other devices (you'll need to scroll down the left-hand navigation bar) and turn off 'Communicate with unpaired devices.' Windows has a function that uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Wi-Fi to transmit information between nearby devices, though it seems to be seldom used. Because the main use case for this technology on Android phones is for COVID-19 tracking apps, you can simply turn off or not install such apps. How much you can do to prevent your phone from being tracked this way depends on your platform. What you can do to prevent Bluetooth tracking Rather, the 'beacons' in this study are two-way communications between devices that are meant to be anonymized so that third parties can't tell which devices are sending the signals.

The study calls these Bluetooth signals 'beacons,' but they're not the same as the Bluetooth beaconing devices that some stores and restaurants place on-premises to send one-way communications to smartphones. It works best 'for specific devices with extremely unique fingerprints, and when the target device has a relatively stable temperature.' Nonetheless, there are limits to this method, the study admits. The study, entitled ' Evaluating Physical-Layer BLE Location Tracking Attacks on Mobile Devices,' will be formally presented at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in May 2022. However, once a device's Bluetooth signal profile was known, the researchers said, they were able to follow the device around town with an accuracy rate of 96%.

They found that picking out individual devices using Bluetooth signals in public places was not that efficient - they were able to identify devices only between 40% and 50% of the time. Study leaders Hadi Givehchian and Nishant Bhaskar told The Register that the equipment needed to track these devices would cost about $200.

Iphone to iphone bluetooth