
Yixuan Gao
Cornell Tech
Seeing Without Seeing: Privacy Challenges in Innovations of Wireless Sensing
Abstract
Wireless sensing technologies embedded in everyday devices can now detect our physiological signals, breathing, heartbeat, and even emotional states, without any physical contact or visible indication. While these capabilities promise revolutionary applications in healthcare and safety, they also enable unprecedented invisible surveillance. This talk explores the fundamental tension between technical capabilities and ethical boundaries in wireless physiological sensing.
I will first demonstrate how pervasive these sensing capabilities have become, showing that devices already in our homes and workplaces possess the hardware to extract health data from wireless signals. I will then present VitalHide, our system that enables users to obfuscate their vital signs from unauthorized sensors while preserving utility for legitimate applications. Finally, I will introduce our ongoing work using interactive simulations and Contextual Integrity to understand when wireless sensing violates social norms versus when it provides acceptable benefits. The talk will argue that as we stand at the threshold of ubiquitous physiological sensing, we need both technical privacy protections and ethical frameworks that evolve with these powerful but invisible technologies.
About
Yixuan Gao is a PhD candidate at Cornell Tech, supervised by Prof. Rajalakshmi Nandakumar. His research spans two interconnected areas: developing innovative wireless sensing and communication systems for health and environmental applications, and exploring the privacy and ethical dimensions of these technologies. His work on soil contamination sensing won the Best Paper Award at EWSN and received coverage from various media outlets. His recent work on vital sign obfuscation, VitalHide, was published at HotMobile '25, and he currently collaborates with Prof. Helen Nissenbaum on establishing ethical boundaries for physiological sensing using the Contextual Integrity framework.
