Say goodbye to cameras: your Wi-Fi router is now watching
For the last seven months I have been switching my Wi-Fi router off before bed, and I noticed feeling somewhat calmer and more relaxed lying in bed. The research I am currently reviewing, however, almost tempted me to throw the entire router out of the window.
I have been reviewing the market report on Wi-Fi Sensing and how that market is projected to grow until 2034. If Wi-Fi Sensing is new to you, here is the essence: the tech industry has successfully decoupled "vision" from "cameras". The Wi-Fi you rely on for your modern lifestyle has quietly turned into a passive, all-seeing radar system.
The Wi-Fi Sensing market is projected to grow by 540% until 2034. And the standard behind it, IEEE 802.11bf, has now been formally published: sensing is no longer a theoretical, opt-in feature, it is actively baked into the global standard for wireless communication.
How your Wi-Fi works is regulated by industry standards set by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). With 802.11bf published, the baseline reality is this: virtually any modern router you buy possesses the hardware capability to monitor you, without ever needing a camera lens. Most physical antennas already inside standard home routers are fully capable of it. You do not need to buy a special "spy router" to be monitored.
For some people it may sound convenient that the lights come on automatically because the Wi-Fi detects you walking into the room, or that the fridge opens as you approach. But the same capability means everything else you do is monitored too. And you opt in to that simply by using your router.
Here is the part that stays with me: you do not need to be holding a phone or wearing a smartwatch. If an ISP-provided router is blasting waves through your apartment, it can map your bare body based entirely on how your skin, water mass and bones reflect the 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz frequencies. Which also means your entire body is constantly penetrated by that radiation. I know, this seems normalised now. But I am old enough to remember when people worried about buying a microwave that emitted radiation for a few minutes when you switched it on. Times have changed.
What you can do, starting tonight
If this bothers you too, the journey continues here on realisemyself.com: living analog, as intended, in a gradually more digital and less human-friendly world. You can trust the best practices and the tools I use in my own daily life. You do not need to buy anything (unless you want to), but I would like humans to remain living under human conditions.
The simplest first step
Mine has been running for seven months: the router sleeps when I sleep. A simple mechanical timer plug switches it off at night and on before I wake, and the bedroom is radio-silent while you rest. The rest of my Healthy Tech choices follow the same principle: use technology, but do not let technology use you.