SocialProbe: Understanding Social Interaction Through Passive WiFi Monitoring

In this paper, we present an approach to extract social behavior and interaction patterns of mobile users by passively monitoring WiFi probe requests and null data frames that are sent by smartphones for network control/management purposes. By analyzing the temporal and spatial correlations of the Receive Signal Strength Indicators (RSSI) of packets from these low rate transmissions, we are able to discover proximity relationships, occupancy patterns, and social interactions among users. We evaluate the SocialProbe system using commodity off-the-shelf smartphones and WiFi Access Points in two locations, a research lab and a public dining area. The result shows that the proposed approach is able to obtain reliable social relationships and interactions in a non-intrusive way.