Privacy advocates have become terrified that new technology has made it too easy to spy on unsuspecting victims in public.
Those legitimate concerns have led to the invention of Cyborg Unplug, a device that can detect devices attempting to access your Wi-Fi signal such as drones, surveillance cameras, phones and Google Glass. The Cyborg Unplug has the ability to boot these devices from your connection.
Cyborg Unplug works by identifying the unique hardware signatures assigned to a Wi-Fi device. For example, project lead Julian Oliver made headlines in the tech world this spring by creating glasshole.sh, a web script that could identify the Google Glass' signature and boot it from a local network. This project is an extension of that work.
Cyborg Unplug will automatically disconnect devices it is trained to guard against by sending "a stream of special 'de-authentication' signals (packets)" to the device in order to disconnect the alien connection. The creators of the new invention have stressed that it is not a jammer because it only disconnects Wi-Fi devices from the user network.
Wi-fi devices are still capable of functioning normally while within range of Cyborg Unplug. The function of Cyborg Unplug is to disallow unwanted connections, not stop them from working. For example, Google Glass users can still take pictures or record freely, but they are unable to stream directly to a device or service on the Internet (the product's website specifically mentions using Skype on a laptop or cloud server).
Although Cyborg Unplug can be used at home, it is meant to be used for public, open network connections such as schools, offices, libraries, and restaurants. Cyber Unplug does have a mode that disconnects all targeted devices from any network they are associated with, but the creators have warned that this setting could be illegal in some jurisdictions.
The two models of Cyber Unplug will be price between $50 and $100. The differences in models have not been revealed.
More products like Cyber Unplug are likely to hit the market to address privacy concerns as devices like Google Glass experience price drops. The invention of a product that blocks Wi-Fi connections was inevitable. What this means for the future of technology in a real-world situation is unknown, but the battle for privacy will be an interesting event to see unfold.
