Cox (was) bragging about listening to user mics • Hacker News Board

Re: Cox (was) bragging about listening to user mics

#21

Post by ceejayoz » Mon, Sep 02, 2024, 11:38 PM UTC

anonomousename wrote: post #18

even_639765 wrote: post #17

In the U.S., it's definitely illegal to listen in in any environment where there's an expectation of privacy. Disney recently argued that its TOS for a Disney Channel free trial subscription could be used to force the husband of a woman who died from anaphylactic shock after her allergy diet requirements were mocked and disregarded by staff at a Disney restaurant because he signed it and it included a forced arbitrat…

Note: article states the restaurant is not Disney affiliated. Disney claims this is the reason why they filed to dismiss.

They should probably tell their website.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/disney-springs/ragl...

Disney's filing is available at https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024-... - I trust that more than a PR flack's attempts to smooth things over.

Re: Cox (was) bragging about listening to user mics

#22

Post by marcellus23 » Tue, Sep 03, 2024, 12:07 AM UTC

thisislife2 wrote: post #15

netsharc wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, some people believe Facebook listens to their conversations and use them for ad targeting, in theory it's possible, but in practice it would mean needing to upload billions of audio files (how many conversations happen in average day near how many phones with active FB/IG accounts on them) and having the computing power to transcribe them. And even if they had the resources, being caught doing it would be too d…

Unless laws exist to prevent this, you can bet that ALL BigTech are doing this, to varying levels. If they are not doing it in your country, you can bet they are doing it in other countries. The US government incentivised them to do this with the PRISM program ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM ) and showed them the value of collecting user data even if they do not need it (right now) for their services and produc…

> Unless laws exist to prevent this, you can bet that ALL BigTech are doing this, to varying levels.

I would absolutely take that bet. It's nothing more than unsubstantiated paranoia.

Re: Cox (was) bragging about listening to user mics

#23

Post by kurthr » Tue, Sep 03, 2024, 12:25 AM UTC

tveita wrote: post #16

netsharc wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, some people believe Facebook listens to their conversations and use them for ad targeting, in theory it's possible, but in practice it would mean needing to upload billions of audio files (how many conversations happen in average day near how many phones with active FB/IG accounts on them) and having the computing power to transcribe them. And even if they had the resources, being caught doing it would be too d…

Even a few years ago it would be perfectly possible to do audio based content ID on known content to uncover viewing preferences on streaming media - a proven business model, ref https://samsungads.events/acrguide-pr These days you could easily run Whisper locally on each cable box and report back whatever information advertisers will pay for. It will run a bit hot, but what do they care if they waste your electricit…

Yeah, listening/matching for specific songs or words is trivial locally. It has been done commercially since the early 2000s (for ASCAP) on mobile phones, when they were dumb bricks. The idea that every single company is following some righteous non-profit seeking stance, is sort of laughable. Maybe FAANG have decided it's not worth it (they have other ways), but that doesn't mean they couldn't or other apps don't.

Re: Cox (was) bragging about listening to user mics

#24

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel » Tue, Sep 03, 2024, 7:20 AM UTC

lowestdecks wrote: post #3

I share the author's skepticism that Cox would have ever been capable of this. Especially not at the scale that was claimed in the deleted B2B marketing materials. While there are reasonable concerns over access to microphones in various devices found in consumer's households, especially cheap IoT devices (although, I'm EXTREMELY about claims that any agent is listening to unfettered microphone access on smartphones,…

Or have 470 really shady apps with a small install base that actually include a listening SDK (with the microphone warning from the OS showing), then pad the rest with garbage data from other sources to pretend their solution covers more than the very few users it does.