Wigle API integration — search for camera networks by region

[dougborg]

Idea

Integrate with the Wigle API to search for WiFi networks matching known surveillance camera manufacturer OUIs within a geographic area. Display results as "suspected RF devices" on the map alongside existing scanner detections.

This issue is a proposal/placeholder to gather community feedback, ideas, and suggestions — not a prescriptive spec.

Why

Wigle is the largest community-contributed wardriving database. It contains historical WiFi network observations with geographic coordinates. By filtering Wigle results through a surveillance device OUI watchlist, we can surface likely camera locations without any dedicated scanning hardware — just an API query for wherever the user is looking on the map.

How it might work

1. User views a region on the map (or triggers a manual search)
2. App queries Wigle API for networks within the visible bounds, filtered by known camera OUI prefixes
3. Results are stored in the existing rf_devices/rf_sightings tables (from PR Add FlockSquawk scanner integration (USB + BLE) #37)
4. Displayed as a distinct marker type on the map (e.g., different icon/color from confirmed detections)

Wigle API Details

• Endpoint: /api/v2/network/search — search by geographic bounds + MAC pattern
• Auth: API name + token (Basic auth), free tier available
• Returns: MAC, SSID, auth mode, channel, lat/lon, first/last seen timestamps
• Filtering: Can filter by OUI prefix (first 3 octets of MAC)

Considerations

• Rate limits — free tier has limits; need to cache results and avoid redundant queries
• Historical data — Wigle results show when someone drove by, not real-time presence. Should be clearly communicated to users
• Privacy — Wigle data is community-contributed; no live scanning involved
• API key management — users would need their own Wigle API key (free registration), or we could use a shared key with rate limiting
• Device persistence — could periodically re-query to track whether devices persist over time
• Result deduplication — need to merge Wigle results with any existing detections from other sources

Open Questions

• Should this be an automatic background query as the user pans the map, or a manual "search this area" button?
• How to handle the API key — require users to register their own, or provide a shared one?
• What marker style to use for Wigle-sourced detections vs hardware-scanned detections?

Effort Estimate

Medium

Dependencies

• Curated surveillance device OUI + SSID watchlist (the watchlist issue)

Related

• PR Add FlockSquawk scanner integration (USB + BLE) #37 — FlockSquawk scanner integration (rf_devices/rf_sightings data model)
• Custom data providers (OSM/Overpass alternatives) #75 — Custom data providers
• Part of the Wardriving & Surveillance Detection epic