New research from Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology shows that standard Wi-Fi routers can identify individuals in a home with 99.5% accuracy.
The breakthrough study shows that standard Wi-Fi routers installed in millions of homes harbor a major security flaw.
By utilizing machine learning, researchers successfully intercepted unencrypted 'beamforming feedback information' (BFI)—the data routers use to direct signals toward connected devices. Because these signals are physically distorted by human bodies moving through space, the researchers were able to decode these distortions to identify individual participants with an astonishing 99.5% accuracy rate, all without needing to connect to the target network.
The implications of this discovery are profoundly alarming for personal privacy, essentially turning standard home routers into passive cameras that can sense through walls. Even when participants changed their walking patterns or carried bulky items like backpacks, the system could still identify them with over 50% accuracy. Because this BFI data is completely unencrypted and accessible to anyone within physical range of the signal, the researchers are calling on regulators and technology manufacturers to implement immediate privacy protections or abandon beam forming protocols altogether before the vulnerability is exploited.
source: Wilkins, J. (2026). Random Standard Wi-Fi Routers Can Scan Your Body to Identify Exactly Who You Are, Alarming New Research Finds. Futurism.
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