this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
169 points (100.0% liked)

Privacy Guides

18758 readers
1 users here now

In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.

This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.


You can subscribe to this community from any Kbin or Lemmy instance:

Learn more...


Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We've tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!

Want to get involved? The website is open-source on GitHub, and your help would be appreciated!


This community is the "official" Privacy Guides community on Lemmy, which can be verified here. Other "Privacy Guides" communities on other Lemmy servers are not moderated by this team or associated with the website.


Moderation Rules:

  1. We prefer posting about open-source software whenever possible.
  2. This is not the place for self-promotion if you are not listed on privacyguides.org. If you want to be listed, make a suggestion on our forum first.
  3. No soliciting engagement: Don't ask for upvotes, follows, etc.
  4. Surveys, Fundraising, and Petitions must be pre-approved by the mod team.
  5. Be civil, no violence, hate speech. Assume people here are posting in good faith.
  6. Don't repost topics which have already been covered here.
  7. News posts must be related to privacy and security, and your post title must match the article headline exactly. Do not editorialize titles, you can post your opinions in the post body or a comment.
  8. Memes/images/video posts that could be summarized as text explanations should not be posted. Infographics and conference talks from reputable sources are acceptable.
  9. No help vampires: This is not a tech support subreddit, don't abuse our community's willingness to help. Questions related to privacy, security or privacy/security related software and their configurations are acceptable.
  10. No misinformation: Extraordinary claims must be matched with evidence.
  11. Do not post about VPNs or cryptocurrencies which are not listed on privacyguides.org. See Rule 2 for info on adding new recommendations to the website.
  12. General guides or software lists are not permitted. Original sources and research about specific topics are allowed as long as they are high quality and factual. We are not providing a platform for poorly-vetted, out-of-date or conflicting recommendations.

Additional Resources:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

A marketing team within media giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims it has the capability to listen to ambient conversations of consumers through embedded microphones in smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices to gather data and use it to target ads, according to a review of CMG marketing materials by 404 Media and details from a pitch given to an outside marketing professional. Called “Active Listening,” CMG claims the capability can identify potential customers “based on casual conversations in real time.”

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] jmankman@lemmy.myserv.one 70 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Advertising continues to prove that it is a net negative in the world every time I see it

[–] Aabbcc@lemm.ee 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

*scribbles notes*

Don't be seen.... Got it

[–] Dr_Fetus_Jackson@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

"You can always tell a Milford man."

[–] Texas_Hangover@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

And its never satisfied, and gets progressively worse.

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 33 points 2 years ago (3 children)

One can only hope that we will eventually amend trespass laws to include digital trespassing.

[–] FutileRecipe@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (4 children)

They (manufacturer) would just put it in the ToS that the user grants them that access, because very few actually reads those and just hit Accept.

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

A proper law/regulation would aim to prevent that. Explicit consent to enter a home must be given, every time. Physically or digitally.

[–] FutileRecipe@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Except the device is already in your home, and most people leave their account logged in. That's basically like you inviting someone into your house, they hang out in your spare bedroom...and they're still there. So no need to re-grant consent to a situation that hasn't changed. Unless you mean it auto-logs out (or you log out) and have to re-grant consent then? Most do require consent on logging in, and the average consumer would hate having to log in every time and would probably use weak passwords because of this.

But, you can at least kick them out (revoke consent).

I just don't see how a proper law/regulation would fix/restrict this, except to make certain personalization attempts (targeted ads) illegal.

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 years ago

Except the device is already in your home, and most people leave their account logged in.

People buy products to serve a purpose to themselves and their family, so yes, the device is in their home FOR THEIR USE.

Being logged in isn't an open invitation to be spied, so laws need to address that.

That’s basically like you inviting someone into your house, they hang out in your spare bedroom…and they’re still there.

The invite, in this case, is not for a company to spy on you and your family. I don't think anyone would actually want that, especially not for the purpose of targeting them with ads.

People use voice activated devices, which do record and react to voice prompt, but the permission here is given only for that use. A company shouldn't be able to say “hey, you can use the service you've paid for, and by agreeing to use that service, you also agree to give us permission to digitally invade your home and privacy.”

I just don’t see how a proper law/regulation would fix/restrict this, except to make certain personalization attempts (targeted ads) illegal.

Yes, make it illegal. And make everything opt-in without strings attached (i.e. if you agree to use the service you paid for, you agree to being spied on).

I will personally continue to use my wallet to yield power. I won't buy devices or support companies who are evil, and will support companies who respect privacy and data freedom. The whole enshitification of the digital landscape is incredibly sad to see, TBH.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] dutchkimble@lemy.lol 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

But then it'll be fine for them to do it because - forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] LWD@lemm.ee 15 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[–] vexikron@lemmy.zip 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Why wouldnt they be serious?

If your phone has the capability to have a parental control / monitoring mode on it enabled, which can see everything you are doing on the phone, hear what youre saying and see what the cameras see and know your GPS location... and hide all of this to the user...

Why wouldnt ad companies also pay for such a live feed, or at least parts of it, if the software and hardware capabilities already exist?

People have been reporting getting advertisements based on conversations they were having 10 minutes ago with a person next to their phone for years.

[–] Lemmchen@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What are you talking about? Which phone has parental control abilities like that?

[–] vexikron@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 years ago

Well, all phones with Google's Android do, and probably all iPhones too, though I am not an iPhone user so I cannot speak from personal experience on iPhones.

My brother, last year, decided to engage parental control on my android phone and used it to stalk me on foot and in his car.

He was the head of the TMobile family plan we were on. I talked to TMobile employees at different locations many times about this. They tried to helo me, but because I was not the head of the plan, the tech support people that the instore agents had to call to try to fix my situation wouldnt do anything.

At one point a T Mobile employee told me to call the police... on T Mobile.

But uh yeah everything on stock android is connected to a google account, and TMobile and Google apparently just presume that any one not the head of a family plan are children, and will allow parental control to be enabled /without informing the 'child'/.

[–] peregus@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

How can they technically do that? They would need their own app because Android by itself isn't listening (it does while using voice command). And why would they say they can while it's against the law to do it (at least in Europe, but I guess in the USA too).

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'd guess they're planning on making their own stuff that does. I've already seen a "free" TV with an extra screen that just shows ads, has a camera, etc.

People are suckers, and there's plenty of unscrupulous companies willing to monetise that.

[–] peregus@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Well, "actually listening to your phone" is a very strong statement (which I think it's false) and completely different from what you've reported. This sounds to me to a very big fake news!

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 8 points 2 years ago

This seems fishy. Beyond being illegal in a lot of places, if this was actually possible without people noticing (e.g. detecting massive data usage of audio being uploaded or native battery/CPU usage of it being processed locally) then we'd know about it!

My first thought is that this is the classic tech sales bullshit of claiming your product can do something impossible in order to sell it. What's most confusing is the statement from the bottom of the article:

“CMG businesses do not listen to any conversations or have access to anything beyond a third-party aggregated, anonymized and fully encrypted data set that can be used for ad placement. We regret any confusion and we are committed to ensuring our marketing is clear and transparent,” the statement added.

So are they admitting it was bullshit or what?

[–] db2@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Sometimes it sure seems like it though.

load more comments
view more: next ›