Ask HN: Social Distance App – count unique Bluetooth mac addresses

23 points·andrewfromx··11 comments

Should we scramble and get live in app store (and play store) a simple app that counts the number of unique bluetooth mac addresses your phone sees each day? i.e. the lower number, the better you are doing at social distancing. And then make it social and like a game, leader boards etc. This app can save lives?

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Recent Android and iOS versions report false, randomized Bluetooth addresses to prevent exactly that.

You can still count them, even though you can't associate a bluetooth address with a specific device.

All car radios have Bluetooth addresses and even some watches and headphones. We've had a breakout in a village nearby, 1 hour drive from our town. There's little Bluetooth there. Most people still don't use broadband and rely on live TV for media and entertainment. But those places are usually the least aware of safety precautions.

this is the most dystopic thing I've read in a while. I'm interested to see if it works though.

Related, from a few days ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22514584 "Can we stop Covid-19 using Bluetooth?"

While this seems like a somewhat more sensible idea in terms of privacy, all the same technical restrictions apply.

i think for version 1.0 of this app it can be honor system of entering your number and getting into the daily habit of noticing how many people you come within 6 feet of each day. We can add the bluetooth/wifi/wigle.net stuff too but it won't be perfect. I started landing page at https://socialdistance.app/

Have a look at CoEpi: https://www.coepi.org/

This probably isn’t going to work well for people in apartments or condos, but it would be interesting nonetheless.

It's called Wiggle.

link?

https://wigle.net/

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