A method of detecting stations in wireless local area networks, comprising: upon transmission, by an access point of a wireless local area network, of an association response to a station, sending a radio measurement request addressed to the station, wherein the radio measurement request includes a command to perform active scanning of a specific SSID, wherein the SSID field of the radio measurement request comprises a unique identifier univocally associated with a persistent MAC address of the station, wherein the unique identifier comprises a common identifier as a first sub-field; actively scanning, by the station, the specific SSID by sending probe requests in the radio-electric channels where the station operates, wherein the SSID field of the probe requests is the SSID field of the radio measurement request; receiving, by at least one access point of one or more wireless local area networks, a probe request sent by the station; analyzing, by the at least one access point that received a probe request, the SSID field of the probe request and determining that the SSID field of the probe request comprises a unique identifier univocally associated with a persistent MAC address of the station if the SSID field of the probe request contains a first sub-field that corresponds to the common identifier, and in that case: obtaining the persistent MAC address of the station from the unique identifier of the SSID field of the probe request, and associating the source address of the probe request with the persistent MAC address of the station on a database of known stations; detecting stations within the coverage area of the at least one access point based on the information stored on the database of known stations. upon transmission, by an access point of a wireless local area network, of an association response to a station, sending a radio measurement request addressed to the station, wherein the radio measurement request includes a command to perform active scanning of a specific SSID, wherein the SSID field of the radio measurement request comprises a unique identifier univocally associated with a persistent MAC address of the station, wherein the unique identifier comprises a common identifier as a first sub-field; actively scanning, by the station, the specific SSID by sending probe requests in the radio-electric channels where the station operates, wherein the SSID field of the probe requests is the SSID field of the radio measurement request; receiving, by at least one access point of one or more wireless local area networks, a probe request sent by the station; analyzing, by the at least one access point that received a probe request, the SSID field of the probe request and determining that the SSID field of the probe request comprises a unique identifier univocally associated with a persistent MAC address of the station if the SSID field of the probe request contains a first sub-field that corresponds to the common identifier, and in that case: obtaining the persistent MAC address of the station from the unique identifier of the SSID field of the probe request, and associating the source address of the probe request with the persistent MAC address of the station on a database of known stations; obtaining the persistent MAC address of the station from the unique identifier of the SSID field of the probe request, and associating the source address of the probe request with the persistent MAC address of the station on a database of known stations; detecting stations within the coverage area of the at least one access point based on the information stored on the database of known stations.