More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads
1–10 of 107 posts
Re: More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads
#2This is the work of a library used by certain apps, not of Google (although it wouldn't surprise me if Google turned out to be doing the same, discreetly).
I think Android should have way clearer notifications that your mic or camera are being used in the background, like iOS does, even if it may be cumbersome.
Re: More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads
#3I wouldn't be surprised if Google, Apple or Amazon are doing (or going to do) something similar. It doesn't create much traffic at all, a couple of bytes is enough and they can be tacked on to the data stream without anyone noticing.
Someone should build an ultrasonic detector that can recognize these kind of packets and have a look how wide spread this technique already is. We could also need an ultrasonic jammer and ways to add low pass filters to our mics, like some special tape we can place over it to absorb the high frequencies... maybe normal duct tape is already enough.. hmmm
Re: More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads
#4This is the work of a library used by certain apps, not of Google (although it wouldn't surprise me if Google turned out to be doing the same, discreetly). I think Android should have way clearer notifications that your mic or camera are being used in the background, like iOS does, even if it may be cumbersome.
Yes there should be an icon when your mic is active. I tried to build a service in Android to do this but there's no API to get whether the mic is in use or not AFAIK. I ended up disabling mic access for almost all apps, but the Google App and Google Play Services complain when you do this.
Re: More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads
#5I wouldn't be surprised if Google, Apple or Amazon are doing (or going to do) something similar. It doesn't create much traffic at all, a couple of bytes is enough and they can be tacked on to the data stream without anyone noticing. Someone should build an ultrasonic detector that can recognize these kind of packets and have a look how wide spread this technique already is. We could also need an ultrasonic jammer an…
If you're interested in exploring ultrasound in your environment, SpectrumView Plus is a great tool for the job.
Re: More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads
#6I wouldn't be surprised if Google, Apple or Amazon are doing (or going to do) something similar. It doesn't create much traffic at all, a couple of bytes is enough and they can be tacked on to the data stream without anyone noticing. Someone should build an ultrasonic detector that can recognize these kind of packets and have a look how wide spread this technique already is. We could also need an ultrasonic jammer an…
Apple would never do something like this. It's totally against their MO.
Re: More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads
#7I'd like to be able to find an Android utility that shows me apps/processes that are auto-launching in the background and kill them, but my last attempt yielded two that I tried and blacklisted (a feature it has) some apps, yet after booting I was still able to force stop them, implying they still had launched on their own.
Is there any app that actually works for this, or is it somehow not possible?
Re: More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads
#8This is the work of a library used by certain apps, not of Google (although it wouldn't surprise me if Google turned out to be doing the same, discreetly). I think Android should have way clearer notifications that your mic or camera are being used in the background, like iOS does, even if it may be cumbersome.
Yes there should be an icon when your mic is active. I tried to build a service in Android to do this but there's no API to get whether the mic is in use or not AFAIK. I ended up disabling mic access for almost all apps, but the Google App and Google Play Services complain when you do this.
I'd go even further and light the notification LED the entire time something is reading the camera/mic from the firmware (such that applications can't disable it via software). The indicator works well for the webcams on most laptops.
Re: More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads
#9I'd like to be able to find an Android utility that shows me apps/processes that are auto-launching in the background and kill them, but my last attempt yielded two that I tried and blacklisted (a feature it has) some apps, yet after booting I was still able to force stop them, implying they still had launched on their own. Is there any app that actually works for this, or is it somehow not possible?
ok.
Re: More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads
#10I wouldn't be surprised if Google, Apple or Amazon are doing (or going to do) something similar. It doesn't create much traffic at all, a couple of bytes is enough and they can be tacked on to the data stream without anyone noticing. Someone should build an ultrasonic detector that can recognize these kind of packets and have a look how wide spread this technique already is. We could also need an ultrasonic jammer an…
Apple would never do something like this. It's totally against their MO.
Apple is made of people. People who change, people who come and go. Maybe Apple today wouldn't, but tomorrow Apple will be a different company.