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: 2) by pkrasimirov on Saturday November 05 2016, @12:37PM
Am I supposed to have some shitty app running all the time on my mobile? How can it record these sounds AND report to the mothership?
(Score: 3, Informative) by bradley13 on Saturday November 05 2016, @12:43PM
Any app that has permission to listen to your microphone would be able to collect this data.
- Facebook comes immediately to mind - they sell out their users all the time, why not do so again?
- The various Google apps running on your phone could also track this data.
- Any random stupid game might, in addition to displaying adverts, also collect and sell this data.
tl;dr: No new app needed, there are already plenty of wide-open doors.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by driven on Saturday November 05 2016, @01:39PM
What's an appropriate way to stop this, I wonder? One thought is Android could report on the amount of time an app used the microphone for. Sort by microphone usage highest->lowest, let the user decide what is legit usage, uninstall the app/revoke permission if necessary.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 06 2016, @02:10AM
What's an appropriate way to stop this, I wonder?
Enlist the services of a dog, or a teenager?
(Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Saturday November 05 2016, @01:42PM
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 05 2016, @02:45PM
> An app that was doing this all the time would cause massive battery drain.
Don't count on it. How do you think modern phones are able to constantly listen for commands as in "hey siri" and "ok google?"
They have dedicated low-power chips for microphone data processing.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Saturday November 05 2016, @01:43PM
Most apps request (require) more access than they actually need to perform their primary and secondary functions.
Many apps implement a lot of stuff that has nothing to with the application as such. This is either down to lazy programmers who didn't put limits on (optimistic view), or by design to sneak in all things that the user does not want but must get to milk the user for every last bit of information (pessimistic view).
Please be reminded of the fact that Google, the Android pusher, is an advertisement company.
You yourself decide which category you, your device and its software falls into and how to act accordingly. Define which is the product... your phone, the app, or you.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Sarasani on Saturday November 05 2016, @03:50PM
I once asked the developers of a popular open source Android based email client why their application requested something to the tune of 45 permissions when all the application was supposed to do is [1] access network [2] fetch/send email and [3] access the contacts list. The developers' response made a bit of sense ("we need it for these rather exotic/obscure functions, and also for future capabilities, but hey, at least you can look into the code -- it's open source!"). That was enough information for me to make up my mind: never installed the application and stacked it neatly on top of the "forget-about-it" pile. I guess I just didn't fit their "what-are-permissions" user profile.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Bot on Saturday November 05 2016, @02:49PM
You want to filter high freqs, right? As wikipedia says
A stiff physical barrier tends to reflect higher sound frequencies.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 05 2016, @05:45PM
Unless it redirects the speaker as an input.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday November 06 2016, @08:30PM
A speaker can do input, but it should be wired to do so, and sensible to ultrasound...
Account abandoned.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ShadowSystems on Saturday November 05 2016, @03:01PM
It's called a Feature Phone.
It doesn't run apps, it has no onboard storeage to keep such an app even if it could run it, & the fact that it's a "flip phone" design that folds shut means the microphone spends the bulk of it's time resting upon the speaker...
You know what microphones tend to do when you get them too close to an audio source such as a speaker?
That's right, it's called a Feedback Whine Loop.
That microphone isn't going to hear SFA because the speaker it's up against is going to be screaming at the tops of it's lungs & scrambling any chance in hell it might have of hearing a damned thing.
The louder it screams the louder the FWL & the worse the microphone gets for your purposes.
So your app (if my phone could run it) will get nothing but the phone going nuckin futz unable to hear your advertising for all the screaming it's doing to itself.
Good luck with your marketing attempt, I've turned off the BlueTooth since I don't use an earpiece & have nothing to sync it to, it doesn't have WiFi at all (except the cellular chipset modem), and it'll be too busy asking "Can I hear you now?" in a parody of the old Verizon commercials.
I've never been so glad to be a Crotchety Old Git & have a mere Feature Phone!
You can keep your pseudo-SmartPhone & cram it !RIGHT! up the butt of the nearest marketer trying to monetize you.
=-)p Plbplbplblblblblbbbbb...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 05 2016, @03:28PM
The more modern "feature phones" include Android phones from such manufacturers as LG and Samsung. I'm defining "feature phone" as a cheap throwaway, $50 US or less, often times packaged by the second tier telcos with a pay as you go plan. I have a throwaway for which I paid only $20, it has a couple gig of storage, I can install apps, it will run Google play, on-screen keypad - it's almost like an expensive Android. The only real problem I've had with it, is that it fails to recognize SD storage. The distributor probably disabled the SD storage, and if I were smart enough, I could probably reenable it.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Saturday November 05 2016, @04:35PM
You usually just have to install a mini-SD card in it. Please don't tell us you didn't RTFM.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 05 2016, @05:08PM
RTFM - the same card that works in multiple other phones isn't seen by this phone. It just isn't seen. I did some poking around on the net, but haven't researched it seriously yet. Most phones are just plug and play, this one is not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 05 2016, @03:25PM
Home computers no speakers or mics. Speakers make multiple machines in a room unbearable.
Office computer no speakers or mics.
Cell Phones, turned off - they are for emergencies only.
So what is this tracking about?
(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!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 05 2016, @04:03PM
I read tfa(s) and didn't see anything about what frequencies are being used.
In the 1980s, I remember working in a lab that could feel really oppressive. Finally someone hooked a good microphone up to an oscilloscope and discovered that the motion sensor that turned the lights off (for energy saving) was pumping out 24 KHz at something like 110 dB. Ouch!
The engineers in the lab dealt with it quickly. Not sure if management ever knew...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 05 2016, @04:06PM
C'mon guys, if I wanted that I'd go read the green site.
The solution is not to install apps that use the microphone. Or, if you have a mobile OS that allows you more fine-grained permissions, you can even install the app but not give it microphone access.
(Score: 3, Informative) by captain normal on Saturday November 05 2016, @04:47PM
Do you have GooMaps on your phone? Best look at the permissions you granted when you installed it. For some reason virtually every app in the Google Store wants access to not only your location, but also access to your phones camera, microphone, and images in your gallery.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 05 2016, @04:57PM
Google maps doesn't require any of those permissions. The only "inappropriate" permission it requires is access to contacts, but Google already has the contacts, so it's not a big deal (for a third-party app it would be).
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Saturday November 05 2016, @07:25PM
Maps has hands free voice control, which is fucking amazing when careening down the freeway, half a second away from brutal death.
The images permission, if it exists, it probably to pull geolocation data to suggest places to go to in the Driving mode.
You may not want these features, but some people do, and these features in and of themselves aren't evil (it's up to you to trust that Google isn't also siphoning your data to the Illuminati in addition to these).
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 06 2016, @04:45AM
That's not even a "solution" at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 06 2016, @09:50AM
... another agency already found out that kids can still hear that shit. They tried to make something fun out of it at least.
http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/fanta-launches-mobile-application-audible-teenagers/866282 [campaignlive.co.uk]