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Burger King TV Ad Asks, Hoping Google Home Devices Answer

nytimes.com

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Re: Burger King TV Ad Asks, Hoping Google Home Devices Answer

#151
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google should take Burger King to court via the computer fraud and abuse act It certainly is unauthorized use of a computer... not a stretch at all.

one would argue that when you voluntarily install a device that listens to unauthenticated verbal requests, you pretty much consent to everything. In other words, people who buy alexa and ghome do not get to complain about unauthorized use, or privacy for that matter.

AT&T won the unauthenticated iPad emails thing, putting weev in prison. As far as i can tell, i have to divine the intentions of the owner of any computer i connect to before i connect to it, or i'm breaking the law.

Re: Burger King TV Ad Asks, Hoping Google Home Devices Answer

#152
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google should take Burger King to court via the computer fraud and abuse act It certainly is unauthorized use of a computer... not a stretch at all.

one would argue that when you voluntarily install a device that listens to unauthenticated verbal requests, you pretty much consent to everything. In other words, people who buy alexa and ghome do not get to complain about unauthorized use, or privacy for that matter.

A verbal request from your TV is pretty much equivalent to typing in an URL "by hand", and AFAIK people got sacked under CFAA for the latter, because of "unauthorized" access to data.

In my layman's opinion, there's a potential for a case here.

Re: Burger King TV Ad Asks, Hoping Google Home Devices Answer

#153
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

one would argue that when you voluntarily install a device that listens to unauthenticated verbal requests, you pretty much consent to everything. In other words, people who buy alexa and ghome do not get to complain about unauthorized use, or privacy for that matter.

Unauthenticated != Authorized And for that matter Authenticated != Authorized Whether you can do something is orthogonal to whether you're allowed to do it.

Correct. Example: this user logged into my service. Let's try to log into gmail with the same password. It worked. I'm authenticated, but not authorized.

Re: Burger King TV Ad Asks, Hoping Google Home Devices Answer

#154

Do these people have no idea how much they are annoying their own customers? I just bought a google home (it's only just been released here), and if it either plays me adverts, or other adverts (ab)use it - I will return it to the store without hesitation. This was not sold as an ad-supported service. To take an extreme position - Google should take Burger King to court via the computer fraud and abuse act - they've…

really? People voluntarily installed a listening device in their homes. That should no way encroach on complete freedom of speech, no matter how tricky.

Re: Burger King TV Ad Asks, Hoping Google Home Devices Answer

#155
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... but is doing this at your friend's place really the place to be getting on your soapbox? Who said it's a soapbox? Personally I'd find it hilarious watching a friend scramble to unplug their poorly-designed voice assistant—assuming they even cared, which they probably wouldn't. > ... proselytising and ranting to your friends is one thing ... What about to people on the internet, telling them they're childish, im…

If your friend bought it, maybe they don't consider is a "poorly-designed voice assistant"? Maybe they think you're just trying to misuse their device, and being a bit silly? It's the equivalent of going to somebody's unlocked laptop and typing in "XXX bum photos" or "how to kill the president. Or yelling "Fire! Fire!" to scare somebody. Yes, it's probably quite funny when you're young (and you shouldn't leave unlock…

>If your friend bought it, maybe they don't consider is a "poorly-designed voice assistant"? Maybe they think you're just trying to misuse their device, and being a bit silly?

I'd like to think people are the best judges of how their own friends will react, but maybe that's naïve.

>It's the equivalent of going to somebody's unlocked laptop and typing in "XXX bum photos" or "how to kill the president. Or yelling "Fire! Fire!" to scare somebody.

Those examples aren't even comparable to each other, let alone to a bunch of orders made via voice assistant that probably end up instantly canceled.

>Yes, it's probably quite funny when you're young ...

>Look, we're obviously talking at different levels here ...

>... There's little I have to gain here.

>... if any of you actually are under the age of 16

>... before you have to be an adult ...

You may have overdone the condescension there just a little bit.

Re: Burger King TV Ad Asks, Hoping Google Home Devices Answer

#156
post #121

Do these people have no idea how much they are annoying their own customers? I just bought a google home (it's only just been released here), and if it either plays me adverts, or other adverts (ab)use it - I will return it to the store without hesitation. This was not sold as an ad-supported service. To take an extreme position - Google should take Burger King to court via the computer fraud and abuse act - they've…

> Google should take Burger King to court via the computer fraud and abuse act It certainly is unauthorized use of a computer... not a stretch at all.

The CFAA only applies to us little guys. It doesn't apply at all to larger corporations. Especially ones in excess of 1$ billion a year revenue.

Re: Burger King TV Ad Asks, Hoping Google Home Devices Answer

#157
post #142
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmINGWsyWX0

That could quite possibly be the weirdest thing I've ever watched.

On the one hand, that shows the advance in speech recognition.

10 years ago, you would get two cycles in and the software would assplode.

Re: Burger King TV Ad Asks, Hoping Google Home Devices Answer

#158

Lot of people are already bringing up various concerns. I hope this is precisely what it does here in HN and outside. Talk about concerns regarding about these devices. Is there anyway for end user to know what "wake up" keywords are? How do I know it's not listening for keywords like "buy" (example: "You should `buy` milk") and then targeting adds that way? What happens next time FBI decides it wants google (et. all…

> What happens next time FBI decides it wants google (et. all) to leave its device "always awake" on some person of interest ? Do you not own a smartphone that could conceivably be compromised in the same way?

No. I have sufficient internet and POTS access. It's really not that hard, although I suspect you may disagree (possibly due to the addictive properties of ubiquitous connectivity).

Re: Burger King TV Ad Asks, Hoping Google Home Devices Answer

#159
post #138

FFS... this is one of the rare occasions I'm almost ashamed to be a technologist. Creating cool new technology, only for it to lead to this kind of bullshit, is kind of disgusting. :-( Seriously, who the hell thought this was a good idea?

> Seriously, who the hell thought this was a good idea? Voluntarily putting an always listening, internet connected device in your house, uploading data to the biggest advertising or commerce corporation, possibly man-in-the-middled by NSA?

That too. :-)

Re: Burger King TV Ad Asks, Hoping Google Home Devices Answer

#160
post #154

Do these people have no idea how much they are annoying their own customers? I just bought a google home (it's only just been released here), and if it either plays me adverts, or other adverts (ab)use it - I will return it to the store without hesitation. This was not sold as an ad-supported service. To take an extreme position - Google should take Burger King to court via the computer fraud and abuse act - they've…

really? People voluntarily installed a listening device in their homes. That should no way encroach on complete freedom of speech, no matter how tricky.

A corporation has no freedom of speech rights. It's important to remember that a corporation is not considered to the same rights as a person in these cases, nor should they ever be allowed to be.
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