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 . <EOS>