NEWS Bluetooth, the connectivity technology most commonly found in mobiles and PDAs, looks like it could be spawning a new craze – and possibly a new outlet for spammers.
Bluetooth enables devices within a few metres of each other to exchange information wirelessly – a technology that users with Bluetooth-enabled mobiles are making the most of to send text messages to strangers anonymously.
This drive-by messaging has been dubbed 'bluejacking'. But why would somebody bluejack a stranger's phone? The motive behind the craze is to freak out other Bluetooth users that you might encounter in public – for example, a bluejacker will check out other Bluetooth users on the tube and drop them a message that only someone in the same place will appreciate, for example, their choice of newspaper or colour of their top or just a message to let them know that they've been bluejacked.
How do you bluejack? By saving a message in the 'name' field of your phone, for example, "Nice tweed trousers", then choose to send it via Bluetooth – a list of enabled hardware in the vicinity should appear on your phone, select the device you want and off you go.
While bluejacking may turn out to be another game for teenagers to waste a few minutes on, one theory goes that it's the latest way for spammers to get their messages straight to consumers and unlike SMS spam, which never really got going, it's free to bluejack someone. Businesses such as bars for example may decide to send out messages to customers, or businesses may bluejack phones with special offers as people pass their shop in an attempt to lure them in.
However, it looks like bluejacking won't go straight to the top of spammers' love lists straight away. Apart from the obvious restrictions posed by needing to be within a 10m radius of your subject, a lot of owners of Bluetooth enabled devices, having found no use for the technology, have just switched it off.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Some great new web sites are now up all about BlueJacking - try
http://www.bluejackers.co.uk
http://www.bluejackq.com
2. anonymous
It's getting very popular in the UK where there is a high density of bluetooth enabled phones. There are dedicated bluejacking sites poping up as well! www.ibluejackedyou.com
3. anonymous
That 'helpful' how-to spreads adolescent behaviour, pulls down society by 'informing' how to terrorise without consequences.
It's as bad as anonymous phonecall harassment - and anyone who's suffered that knows how detrimental that is. But then, who cares? Makes the blue-jackers feel 'big & clever' - just proves the opposite to everyone else!
4. John Thomas
What a load of fatuous nonsense. RIP SMS? Hardly likely.
I can wirte a maximum of three short words in the name field of my contacts list - hardly expressive. Even SMS allows me 160 characters.
A 10 metre range - woo. Again
, hardly likely to kill off SMS.
It's also entirely handset dependant. Some handsets with bluetooth won't even recieve the message (even if they do happen to have their Bluetooth connection switched on, and have set it to receive).
Three People decide to set up a web site and the media goes crazy. Do you really think this is the next big thing or is it just a quiet news day?
5. Robert James
Well, looks like an interesting story at first glance... but two or three sites and a handful of practitioners hardly constitutes a 'craze', despite the media coverage - or anything like a serious threat to SMS, let alone any other form of mobile communication. Bluejacking is so niche its almost not there! I mean, there are so many variables to consider: not least the 10m range, the need for compatible devices, the 24-odd character limit, the receivers phone needing to be set to receive, the sender and receiver remaining close enough together to exchange anything meaningful before moving out of sight or connection... etc! All in all just a piece of news ephemera about a way of playing with Bluetooth functionality and something presumably promoted by the proprietors of the 'Bluejacking' sites. At the end of the day, you could achieve a similar effect by shouting messages to random people at the nearest street corner (but with a better range and fewer compatibility problems!)
Can we please get real?
6. anonymous
The future of BlueJacking?
http://www.bluejacking.info/future.htm
What do you think?
7. anonymous
with sites like bluejackaddict.co.uk it shows the popularity. its popular and in very early days, have you tried sending notes instead of a contact? you will fit a few more characters in than in a contact message.