SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the always-listening-to-our-customers dept.
Synchronizing email, texts, calendar, bookmarks, contacts, notes, git? Done.
Synchronizing what ads you heard when you had your phone in your pocket, and you tablet on the train, and you computer on your desk? Also done.
ArsTechnica (UK) has an article about synchronizing consumer and friend's device use without consumer involvement.
The ultrasonic pitches are embedded into TV commercials or are played when a user encounters an ad displayed in a computer browser. While the sound can't be heard by the human ear, nearby tablets and smartphones can detect it. When they do, browser cookies can now pair a single user to multiple devices and keep track of what TV commercials the person sees, how long the person watches the ads, and whether the person acts on the ads by doing a Web search or buying a product.
Cross-device tracking raises important privacy concerns, the Center for Democracy and Technology wrote in recently filed comments to the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC has scheduled a workshop on Monday to discuss the technology. Often, people use as many as five connected devices throughout a given day—a phone, computer, tablet, wearable health device, and an RFID-enabled access fob. Until now, there hasn't been an easy way to track activity on one and tie it to another.
"As a person goes about her business, her activity on each device generates different data streams about her preferences and behavior that are siloed in these devices and services that mediate them," CDT officials wrote. "Cross-device tracking allows marketers to combine these streams by linking them to the same individual, enhancing the granularity of what they know about that person."
According to TechCrunch, Silverpush says it "isn't receiving any actual audio data" from some 18 million smartphones.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 15 2015, @07:33AM
most apps come with adware (even paid apps... ikr)
if someone wants to install a game (say) they must accept certain permissions for the app
most people don't even read these permissions, let alone understand what they mean
even if they see some permission they don't like, they have two options:
1. refuse to install the app and feel like a freedom warrior for about 5 minutes, until they realize they just want the game and privacy be damned
2. just install the game (this is of course the most common choice)
there are also shitloads of google things that come preinstalled on android phones, and well you know... google makes a lot of money from advertising
there are also many things always running in the background on most phones (most people also have nfi what they are)
many people also leave internet connectivity enabled
what this is leading to is the shopping mall scene from minority report, except that no biometrics will be required
someone will walk into a shopping mall, various shops will be emanating ultrasonic signals at specific frequencies, which the shopper's phone will pick up on, and send some sort of message to the shop's webserver, and low and behold advertising panels around you start displaying ads tailored to your tastes
its a very simple concept, but is still creepy af
worst of all, nobody will be able to stop it unless they disconnect their phone's internet, which means no more facebook notifications... yeah not gunna happen