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Cox deletes ‘Active Listening’ ad pitch after boasting that it eavesdrops though our phones (www.fastcompany.com)

submitted 11 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Cox deletes ‘Active Listening’ ad pitch after boasting that it eavesdrops though our phones::undefined

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[–] patchexempt@lemmy.zip 20 points 11 months ago (10 children)

this was such a weird claim, and I never really understood how it could be true specifically for phones, where they aren't in control of system software. there's like a gradient of possibility here:

Android phones from major manufacturers, and Apple phones: doubt it. those things are too heavily scrutinized, someone would've found it, and the companies that make them don't have the impetus.
official "smart" voice devices from Amazon, Google, et al: doubt it, same reasoning as above
Android phones from small players, heavily subsidized models, etc.: sure, could be
smart TVs from major manufacturers: probably not? medium "maybe"? I bought one of these with a hardware mic switch so I guess that shows my paranoia
other smart TVs: I dunno, feels highly likely

so: I'm careful about what I use so my risk felt pretty low, but I also feel like if this were true security researchers would've discovered it. let alone the fact that what they describe is bandwidth and battery intensive (off-device or on-device respectively, I don't remember what they claimed as I read the 404 media report some weeks back) but it still makes me wonder: what led them to make these claims then? fascinating, pretty scary.

[–] whofearsthenight@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Android phones from major manufacturers, and Apple phones: doubt it.

Bold added for emphasis, Apple claims privacy as a feature and OS control of the mic to prevent this exact sort of thing. Not only would someone have found it, it would be a news cycle on the mainstream news, and basically just the wallpaper for any tech-centric website.

I mean, fucks sake, iFixIt alone would find mics in places they shouldn't be and this would be a story.

Unfortunately, the truth is more boring, and basically pretty much every app/website most of us use are tracking us in some way unless you really seek prevention. They don't need the mic.

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