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The Spanish soccer league's smartphone app, which has been installed by millions of users, uses the microphone and GPS readings of the devices its installed on to report possible instances of streaming piracy by listening. The smartphone app listens to and analyzes the audio in its surroundings to check if one of La Liga’s matches is being played and then pairs that with GPS data to see if that location is an authorized broadcaster and file reports.
Spanish soccer league "La Liga" is using its official Android app to create an army of millions of piracy spies. The app can access microphone and location data to scan for restaurants, bars, and other establishments that broadcast their matches without a license. "Protect your team," La Liga notes, while encouraging users to enable the functionality.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 12 2018, @11:02PM (4 children)
It used to be that people said "information is power," but now that information is so ubiquitous it seems like the aphorism could be updated to "integrity is power."
This move by the soccer league and many other corporations seem to be destroying all trust in them and the system they have created. Think about all the hacks of corporate systems that are created by companies that ought to be able to afford to secure them. Think about all the revelations of spying at all levels and at every opportunity. Think of all the #metoo stuff that has revealed so much darkness about people and companies that once enjoyed the highest esteem.
That catastrophic implosion of trust in institutions and authorities has to have real consequences, or is it just me that thinks that?
I am by nature a critical thinker and that has been reinforced by the educational and professional path I have walked, but it's getting so ridiculous out there that I feel like I have to move absolutely every quadrant of my life to a DIY, trust-no-one basis. At the same time, it seems like the surest path to social capital for an individual in this age is to strive to exemplify trustworthiness and integrity.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Lester on Wednesday June 13 2018, @07:49AM (2 children)
The information is not ubiquitous, the sources of data are ubiquitous, but information is in a few hands.
Before internet age, elites had 100 of information and we, regular citizens, had just 1. In the beginning of Internet suddenly citizens had 50 of information, gap of information power had reduced. What we didn't anticipate in that golden information age is that after a few years we would have 90 (waw!!) but elites would have trillions of information. The gap has become an abyss. They don't have a lot of power, now they are almost gods and nobody can stop them.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday June 13 2018, @12:31PM (1 child)
They are not gods at all. They're not acmes of intelligence or vision. They buy the skills they need by surrounding themselves with people like us, because it's too much work for them to learn the skills themselves.
So, if people like us stopped imagining them to be gods, and decided to do something about it, there's very little the power-elite could do.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Lester on Wednesday June 13 2018, @05:49PM
They have some skills. One of them is choosing a goal and a lot of commitment, they overcome any difficulty, they remove any obstacle, including moral or legal obstacles. Another skill is hiring the right people for the right work.
And people won't decide do something about it, not in a statistically significant number. They know it, they rely on it. That's not going to happen. After 2000 years, we, people, haven't managed to get honest politicians that defend people's real interests, so, good luck with a complex matter like information control.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13 2018, @03:35PM
No. The saying always was: Knowledge is power.