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Dystopian corporate surveillance threats today come at us from all directions. Companies offer "always-on" devices that listen for our voice commands, and marketers follow us around the web to create personalized user profiles so they can (maybe) show us ads we'll actually click. Now marketers have been experimenting with combining those web-based and audio approaches to track consumers in another disturbingly science fictional way: with audio signals your phone can hear, but you can't. And though you probably have no idea that dog whistle marketing is going on, researchers are already offering ways to protect yourself.
The technology, called ultrasonic cross-device tracking, embeds high-frequency tones that are inaudible to humans in advertisements, web pages, and even physical locations like retail stores. These ultrasound "beacons" emit their audio sequences with speakers, and almost any device microphone—like those accessed by an app on a smartphone or tablet—can detect the signal and start to put together a picture of what ads you've seen, what sites you've perused, and even where you've been. Now that you're sufficiently concerned, the good news is that at the Black Hat Europe security conference on Thursday, a group based at University of California, Santa Barbara will present an Android patch and a Chrome extension that give consumers more control over the transmission and receipt of ultrasonic pitches on their devices.
In Saks, no one can hear you(r phone) scream.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 05 2016, @04:08PM
Here's a scenario for you with your "Cell Phones, turned off - they are for emergencies only":
You're walking in your favorite park with your wife, no one around, both of you have your 'turned-off' cell phone in your pocket. You suffer cardiac arrest. How long until you can dial 911/112?
Turning them off is all fine and dandy, but don't pretend you can turn them on and they'll be there in seconds. Usually it is +1 minute and in the situation described above, every single fucking minute counts.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 05 2016, @08:19PM
Gee, how did people EVER SURVIVE without always-on, always-listening homing beacons that can also make phone calls!?
Thank you, cellphones! You make us live forever!
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday November 06 2016, @12:34AM
Gee, how did people EVER SURVIVE without always-on, always-listening homing beacons that can also make phone calls!?
They used telephone booths, and before that, semaphore. Before semaphore, defibrillators didn't exist.
If a helpful person is near enough to come within a minute or so, that person may be able to hear a whistle or an air-horn.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 06 2016, @04:38AM
Walking in your favorite park with no one around? That sounds stupid.
Walking in your favorite park WITH THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE with no one around? This sounds really fucking stupid.
I might suffer CA if news came to me about someone being so stupid as to have escorted my LOVE through a park with no one else around!
It's simple: don't go or take anyone you care about into places where no one else is around!