‘It scared them off’, Kansas City shoppers report less crime thanks to security robot patrolling strip mall
www.kctv5.com
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A sight previously thought to be science fiction is very real at a southeast Kansas City shopping center. Instead of a police officer, a security robot has been patrolling sidewalks and shoppers are taking notice.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19944734

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A sight previously thought to be science fiction is very real at a southeast Kansas City shopping center. Instead of a police officer, a security robot has been patrolling sidewalks and shoppers are taking notice.

Since Marshall the robot has been on the job, shoppers say the experiences have completely changed when they come to these stores. The robot can spend 23 hours a day monitoring the parking lot from all angles which gives people a new sense of protection and ease they don’t always have when out.

Marshall took over security at Brywood Centre in April. Before that, Karen White noticed a lot of trouble outside the shopping center.

“Sometimes it’d be concerning for your car like someone could take it or something,” White said.

Knowing now that Marshall is always watching, the risk of crime does not worry her or others as much.

“It made it very better, like you can’t be in the parking lot without seeing the robot,” White continued. “So, I think it scared them off.”

He has a license plate reader, he has facial recognition, he can read IP addresses from your cell phone or watch,”

Uhhhh… How is it reading the ip addresses of people’s phones?

icedterminal
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Someone made a mistake here. It’s not getting your IP address. An IP address is assigned by the gateway when you’re connected to an access point. An IP address is not an identity. They are always changing and can be shared. This has already been tested and upheld in court.

It’s actually collecting your MAC address. Which is exchanged when your phone or tablet scan nearby WiFi points or Bluetooth devices. However, this can already be defeated. By default iOS and Android both have the option to randomise the MAC address in intervals. Making it extremely difficult to prove anything. This feature exists because the devices real MAC address never changes. It is unique. Alternatively, users can disable WiFi and Bluetooth scanning entirely. However, your device no longer participates in the Find My Devices program by Apple and Google, location does take longer to acquire in some scenarios, and accuracy may take longer to triangulate.

Counter-argument, this is all correct, but when the application is against shopping mall criminals it will work well enough. Not talking masterminds here

It must be for wifi that they operate.

foremanguy
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Scarier than I thought 😭

I bet it was something like the hardware id instead but she misspoke

It peobaby just has a WiFi repeater in it

I imagine it MITM’s the wifi? Obviously wouldn’t work with cellular but thats the only this claim can ve even remotely true.

That being said they could do some shit with malicious bluetooth/NFC behaviour but that would be a crime.

Obviously wouldn’t work with cellular

Ever hear of a stingray?

Why would it need to MITM the WiFi? The store runs and operates the wifi

good point.

JackbyDev
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I’ve heard for a while that stores use Bluetooth to track you as you go through a store. Not for anything nefarious but just to understand how people move around the store typically. So it probably does that too.

Well its probably not a MITM if its just an official access point

That’s fair. MITM wouldn’t be the right term.

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