> the fact that this ended up going from research paper to "Comcast can tell if I'm home based on my body's physical interaction with wifi waves" is absolutely wild

The 15-year path was roughly:

  1. bespoke military use (see+shoot through wall)
  2. bespoke law-enforcement use (occupancy, activity)
  3. public research papers by MIT and others
  4. open firmware for Intel modems
  5. 1000+ research papers using open firmware
  6. bespoke offensive/criminal/state malware 
  7. bespoke commercial niche implementations
  8. IEEE standardization (802.11bf)
  9. (very few) open-source countermeasures
  10. ISP routers implementing draft IEEE standard
  11. (upcoming) many new WiFi 7+ devices with Sensing features

> There is one area that the IEEE is not working on, at least not directly: privacy and security.. IEEE fellow and member of the Wi-Fi sensing task group.. the goal is to focus on “at least get the sensing measurements done.” He says that the committee did discuss privacy and security: “Some individuals have raised concerns, including myself.” But they decided that while those concerns do need to be addressed, they are not within the committee’s mandate.