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Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

soundguys.com

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Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#11

Post by jacquesm »

shbooms wrote: post #9

An article complaining about the collecting and sharing of users personal data from a blog site that connects to facebook, google analytics and other third-party services to collect and share their users data? Oh the irony...

I've seen this comment or a variation on it a thousand times now and it is getting boring. Just like all the other times: please comment on the message rather than on the means of delivery, finding pages without social media embeds is becoming more and more rare and besides that the party writing the article content may not have control over that particular aspect. But that doesn't mean they don't have a point.

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#15

Post by treve »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #7
monadic2 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot the firmware of the headphones!

Corded headphones! :) at least until open firmware exists.

Ever tried to connect a corded headphone into a microphone jack? It works quite well

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#16

Post by AlexandrB »

shbooms wrote: post #9

An article complaining about the collecting and sharing of users personal data from a blog site that connects to facebook, google analytics and other third-party services to collect and share their users data? Oh the irony...

While I agree in principle, this kind of observation is getting awfully close to mister gotcha[1]. Whenever the topic of, for example, google analytics comes up on HN, many reasons are given for why the alternatives are inferior. And that's from people intimately familiar with the tech. I'm not sure how you can expect a site whose revenue probably comes exclusively from Google ads to be able to effectively resist the Google/Facebook duopoly.

[1] https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#17

Post by gruez »

Bluecobra wrote: post #12

Ahh, this is real reason why the phone manufacturers want to get rid of the headphone jack. I was so naive to think it was only about DRM/licensing.

Isn't this really only an issue if you use the companion app? I doubt the usb-c/lightning/bluetooth headphones can exfiltrate data if you don't have the companion app installed.

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#18

Post by patrick451 »

jacquesm wrote: post #11
shbooms wrote: post #9

An article complaining about the collecting and sharing of users personal data from a blog site that connects to facebook, google analytics and other third-party services to collect and share their users data? Oh the irony...

I've seen this comment or a variation on it a thousand times now and it is getting boring. Just like all the other times: please comment on the message rather than on the means of delivery, finding pages without social media embeds is becoming more and more rare and besides that the party writing the article content may not have control over that particular aspect. But that doesn't mean they don't have a point.

They author may not be able to control the social media embeds of this particular site, but they certainly have control over where the choose to publish. I see nothing wrong with taking them to task for this sort of hypocrisy.

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#19

Post by dangoor »

Bluecobra wrote: post #12

Ahh, this is real reason why the phone manufacturers want to get rid of the headphone jack. I was so naive to think it was only about DRM/licensing.

There were two things that happened when Apple got rid of the headphone jack: (1) they added water resistance, (2) the phones got thinner. Plus, Apple had seen the trends heading toward wireless headphones.

They still included a dongle to give you a standard headphone jack.

While Apple could likely have gotten their water resistance even with the headphone jack, they couldn’t have made the phones as thin. People may disagree with the product choice, but I don’t see any reason to think that those weren’t the real reasons.

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#20

Post by Lio »

gruez wrote: post #17
Bluecobra wrote: post #12

Ahh, this is real reason why the phone manufacturers want to get rid of the headphone jack. I was so naive to think it was only about DRM/licensing.

Isn't this really only an issue if you use the companion app? I doubt the usb-c/lightning/bluetooth headphones can exfiltrate data if you don't have the companion app installed.

You also can't get firmware updates if you don't install the companion app and allow them to spy on you.
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