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Comment by scohesc | Hacker News Reader

So the summary of the article is:

"Don't leave valuables in your car that you don't want to risk getting stolen"

I guess the author is bringing this to light in the blog post, but don't people see this in parking lots of shopping malls or community centers to apply this everywhere?

It would be even more relevant, since you're going on a trail and aren't near your car for potentially days at a time depending on route you take... but still! :\

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That's a little misleading. It's more like this technique has made stealing stuff from cars more rewarding than just swiping off-brand sunglasses and a CD wallet. It goes from smash & grab at quantity to targeted smashing for quality.

I'd say it's more about how thieves have started to use bluetooth scanners to determine if something very valuable is in your car. If they can tell a macbook is in your car, but your glovebox, center console or trunk are locked, they'll go to extra lengths to break into them.

Can you get a bluetooth signal from a MacBook when its sleeping?

I believe you can, but not when it’s off. It may depend on your sleep settings (“wake for network activity” or “power nap”). I’m not an expert though — just my recollection.

Also "Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer" in Bluetooth settings.

Then, would the computer not need to listen rather than broadcast?

PS: I know quite a lot about Bluetooth, although mostly about BLE. I don't see a reason why the device should be broadcasting anything. If it is scanning for BLE devices it can do "passive scanning". Is this about ordinary Bluetooth and is that different?

PS 2: Why is this different for Wifi? When a device is not connected to Wifi it sends probe requests for access points. My intuition would blame Wifi rather than Bluetooth. However, perhaps I don't know enough about old-fashioned Bluetooth. Or the device manufacturers have implementations that do not make sense from a privacy/security perspective.

Bluetooth hosts aren't entirely passive as I understand it.

Yes according to the article.

Yeah the technique may be somewhat novel, but the solution (don't leave valuables in your car) is more or less the first thing I learned when I moved to a city 20 years ago.

This and don't overly tint your windows. My friends with tinted windows have suffered far more break ins in my experience. Even if there was nothing to steal it gave the impression of hiding something. Same thing goes for stickers that advertise products you've bought that might be in the car.

Tint used to be tied in closely to the car-audio community. It is also an indication you spend money on your car, and on other luxury items. Notice how often cars with obviously aftermarket tint also have aftermarket wheels. Pretty good target if you ask me. That said, if you leave your macbook on the seat in clear view, broadcasting bluetooth, or blasting music, the non-tinted car will suddenly be disadvantaged.

I used to like tint, but found it was a bigger cop magnet than a crime magnet personally.

No, it’s pretty common to assume that hiding things out of site is fine. Many signs in parking lots even explicitly state not to leave valuables visible.

You are right, but until now it was mostly safe to leave electronics hidden well enough.

For instance when on duty, it is very convenient to just keep a laptop buried in the trunk and go shopping or do anything you want as long as you can get back to the car fast enough.

Now I guess shutdown routines will be needed.

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