Google Online Security Blog: Growing Eddystone with Ephemeral Identifiers: A Privacy Aware & Secure Open Beacon Format

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Growing Eddystone with Ephemeral Identifiers: A Privacy Aware & Secure Open Beacon Format

14 aprile 2016

Posted by Nirdhar Khazanie, Product Manager and Yossi Matias, VP Engineering launchedEddystone-EIDProximity Beacon API
Technical Specificationsprotocolspecification preprint Eddystone-TLM

The beacon’s location cannot be spoofed, except by a real-time relay of the beacon signal. This makes it ideal for use cases where a developer wishes to enable premium features for a user at a location.

Beacons provide a high-quality and precise location signal that is valuable to the deployer. Eddystone-EID enables deployers to decide which developers/businesses can make use of that signal.

Eddystone-EID beacons can be integrated into devices that users carry with them without leaving users vulnerable to tracking.

Integrating Seamlessly with the Google Beacon Platform

Launching today on Android and iOS, is a new addition to the wider Google beacon platform: Beacon Tools. Beacon Tools allows you to provision and register an Eddystone-EID beacon, as well as associate content with your beacon through the Google Cloud Platform.

In addition to Eddystone-EID and the new encrypted version of the previously available Eddystone-TLM, we’re also adding a common configuration protocol to the Eddystone family. The Eddystone GATT service allows any Eddystone beacon to be provisioned by any tool that supports the protocol. This encourages the development of an open ecosystem of beacon products, both in hardware and software, removing restrictions for developers.

Eddystone-EID Support in the Beacon Industry

We’re excited to have worked with a variety of industry players as Eddystone-EID develops. Over the past year, Eddystone manufacturers in the beacon space have grown from 5 to over 25. The following 15 manufacturers will be supporting Eddystone-EID, with more to follow:

Accent Systems	Bluvision	Reco/Perples
Beacon Inside	Estimote	Sensoro
Blesh	Gimbal	Signal360
BlueBite	Nordic	Swirl
Bluecats	Radius Networks	Zebra

In addition to beacon manufacturers, we’ve been working with a range of innovative companies to demonstrate Eddystone-EID in a variety of different scenarios.

Samsonite and Accent Systems have developed a suitcase with Eddystone-EID where users can securely keep track of their personal luggage.
K11 is a Hong Kong museum and retail experience using Sensoro Eddystone-EID beacons for visitor tours and customer promotions.
Monumental Sports in Washington, DC, uses Radius Networks Eddystone-EID beacons for delivering customer rewards during Washington Wizards and Capitals sporting events.
Sparta Digital has produced an app called Buzzin that uses Eddystone-EID beacons deployed in Manchester, UK to enable a more seamless transit experience.

You can get started with Eddystone-EID by creating a Google Cloud Platform project and purchasing compatible hardware through one of our manufacturers. Best of all, Eddystone-EID works transparently to beacon subscriptions created through the Google Play Services Nearby Messages API, allowing you to run combined networks of Eddystone-EID and Eddystone-UID transparently in your client code!