You Just Know Surveillance Statists Are Having Orgasms

University of California - Santa Cruz:

[N]ew research from engineers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, shows how the signal from a household WiFi device can be used for this crucial health monitoring with state-of-the-art accuracy -- without the need for a wearable. ... The team found that the Pulse-Fi system worked regardless of the position of the equipment in the room or the person whose heart rate was being measured ... their system had accurate performance with a person three meters, or nearly 10 feet, away from the hardware. ... the researchers are working on further research to extend their technique to detect breathing rate in addition to heart rate ...

Their devices are cheap to make (chip cost for different prototypes ranged from $5 to $30) and "[m]ore expensive WiFi devices like those found in commercial routers would likely further improve the accuracy of their system."

I don't consider the following hypothetical vis a vis surveillance state actors like Palantir, the NSA, et al. I consider it inevitable.

1. As the different kinds of data that they discover they can gather in this way grows and varies, they'll be able to create data sets that (especially cross-referenced with other data sets, like debit card transactions) make it possible to positively identify individuals to the same degree of certainty as, say, facial recognition systems.
2. As they develop that ability, they'll also develop malware that can infect routers and gather and transmit said data.
3. Routers are everywhere. So at some point they'll be able to ask questions like "who's in that room right now?" "what room of what building in what city in what country is this person in right now?" etc.

The possible applications range from being able to "prove," to some level of credibility, that three parties being investigated on a conspiracy charge were in the same room at the same time on a relevant date, to letting a drone know what room its target is currently in.

I've never been under any illusion as to the ability of the surveillance statists to collect information on specified targets. If they were willing to commit the resources, it was almost impossible to thwart them. 

But the kind of stuff Edward Snowden told us about more than a decade ago just keeps developing. Instead of targeting a particular individual, they just gather everything about everyone and sift it to figure out what they want to know.