Customer Service Agents Can See What You're Typing in Real Time • Hacker News Board

Re: Customer Service Agents Can See What You're Typing in Real Time

#61

Post by WestCoastJustin » Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 10:15 PM UTC

Jerry2 wrote: post #47

Another thing people don't realize is that if your browser/extension prefills/autofills certain fields (say, name, email, address, etc), those things can be easily sent to the website even if you don't press the submit button. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/10/browser-a...

Had this happen about 2 weeks ago when I was booking a hotel. This was not a chat window, like the article, but a hotel booking form. I had a few tabs open and filled in the booking information but found something a little more convenient. So, I did not submit the form and closed the tab. About 2-3 minutes later my phone started to ring. It was a customer service agent from that incomplete booking website asking if I needed a better deal!? This was extremely creepy! I guess they are grabbing the form data via xhr requests or something (pre-submit). Not only that they do this, but the speed at which they can action it, makes me think we're in a whole new ball game.

Re: Customer Service Agents Can See What You're Typing in Real Time

#62

Post by AnaniasAnanas » Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 10:15 PM UTC

quietbritishjim wrote: post #57

AnaniasAnanas wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with JS disabled you can still get a lot of these via CSS. Sadly none of these technologies were designed with privacy in mind.

CSS can send HTTP requests without JavaScript? How does that work?

Yes, it can. Consider https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/10/css-only-solution-f... for example.

Re: Customer Service Agents Can See What You're Typing in Real Time

#63

Post by megous » Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 10:15 PM UTC

jbeales wrote: post #7

I wonder if they can see if I've gone off to some other tab to wait while they take their time getting me an answer.

Websites have access to that inforation (document.visibilityState). So I wouldn't be surpirsed.

Re: Customer Service Agents Can See What You're Typing in Real Time

#64

Post by jacurtis » Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 10:16 PM UTC

sbuttgereit wrote: post #10

I'm confused why this is news or surprising? At least for the audience here. I remember plugins for various IM clients would do the same thing in a chat window some decades ago. And I remember my days as a sysop in the good old single line dial up BBS days. You could watch users browse and type all the way back in the mid-80's and I'm sure this has existed about as long as multi-user computers have. If you're typing…

Yeah exactly, this isn't anything new. This has been around for many years and is offered by a majority of live chat solutions out there.

As you mentioned, I am shocked that the HN audience is shocked by this. I could see my parent's being surprised to discover this, but most HN readers should have figured this out a long time ago.

Re: Customer Service Agents Can See What You're Typing in Real Time

#65

Post by AnaniasAnanas » Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 10:17 PM UTC

robin_reala wrote: post #23

AnaniasAnanas wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with JS disabled you can still get a lot of these via CSS. Sadly none of these technologies were designed with privacy in mind.

No? There are a couple of CSS privacy leaks, but the vast majority of privacy leaks are through JS.

Not sure what you are saying no to. I did not say anything that contradicts your statement.

Re: Customer Service Agents Can See What You're Typing in Real Time

#66

Post by modernerd » Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 10:20 PM UTC

It's very rare for a live chat employee to handle only one request. Look at how popular chat apps present multiple requests within the same UI and imagine dealing with these without live streamed text:

HappyFox: https://zapier.cachefly.net/storage/photos/3fe2e4f896499b131...

Olark: https://zapier.cachefly.net/storage/photos/d53ec47e6affe26a5...

LiveChat: https://zapier.cachefly.net/storage/photos/26c01334ea7335635...

Denying support techs the extra 10-30 seconds that live streaming your typed words buys them for privacy reasons seems strange to me.

Your typed words are no more an indication of your deepest private thoughts than a phone support session full of ums and errs and “oh, actually I meant…”.

Re: Customer Service Agents Can See What You're Typing in Real Time

#67

Post by dare0505 » Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 10:20 PM UTC

Jerry2 wrote: post #47

Another thing people don't realize is that if your browser/extension prefills/autofills certain fields (say, name, email, address, etc), those things can be easily sent to the website even if you don't press the submit button. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/10/browser-a...

It's amazing this still works in Chrome.

Open https://anttiviljami.github.io/browser-autofill-phishing/ , enter some auto-fill info, click "Submit" and monitor your "Network" tab requests. You'll find your browser leaked way more info than those 2 information...

Re: Customer Service Agents Can See What You're Typing in Real Time

#68

Post by bscanlan » Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 10:20 PM UTC

bcx wrote: post #4

Alupis wrote: post #2

I always suspected this. Particularly when you're typing something long-winded, and the agent's response is a bit too quick for having to read it all. Although, this will certainly depend on the Chat software used. Back when we used Olark at our company, there was no preview available, although we could "co-browse" and redirect the user's webpage, which was helpful in some cases.

We (Olark) specifically decided not to implement the "read-ahead" or "sneak-peak" feature because we thought it was creepy and broke customer expectations. When you are typing a message to customer service as a customer you should have a chance to compose your thoughts, and should have an expectation of privacy in whatever you are writing before hitting enter.

I work for Intercom, and we also did not implement these features for the same reasons.

Re: Customer Service Agents Can See What You're Typing in Real Time

#69

Post by baroffoos » Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 10:20 PM UTC

Veen wrote: post #54

Jerry2 wrote: post #47

Another thing people don't realize is that if your browser/extension prefills/autofills certain fields (say, name, email, address, etc), those things can be easily sent to the website even if you don't press the submit button. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/10/browser-a...

Yeah, that’s why Safari no longer autofills until you tell it to.

Firefox does it for passwords if you pick to save your password but other fields I just have to double click the field and it drops down with a list of things I have put in it before.

Re: Customer Service Agents Can See What You're Typing in Real Time

#70

Post by jacobsenscott » Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 10:21 PM UTC

dpkonofa wrote: post #29

I wish that it was more prevalent for people to just assume and know that any website, regardless of whether or not it has a chat function, has the ability to record what you're saying (read: typing). Everyone out there should act like everything they type into their web browser has the potential to be seen by, at the very least, the website they're typing it on and, at worst, by everyone online. If you really need t…

I don't think anyone is surprised, but it is still good to call out bad actors from time to time.

Whenever there's a story like this every hn response is "always assume you are being watched at all times!" - but nobody can maintain that kind of hyper vigilance forever, and it isn't a healthy way to live.