Devices really are listening to you?

Tech Talk
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Heard this mentioned by a well-known non-TWiT podcast host with a background in security. When I gave the page a look over, it appears to say that Cox Media are able to use microphones in TVs, phones and other devices to identify user interests from overheard conversations, and sell that info to advertisers. And that it is all perfectly legal because users have had to accept terms & conditions authorising it to get software updates. Must admit I was taken aback by how cheerfully brazen it appears to be.
https://www.cmglocalsolutions.com/cmg-active-listening

I took screen captures in case the page disappears or gets changed.

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Okay, so are we suggesting that apps on a phone can bypass the request to use your microphone in order to do this? Or are they pretending they can do something they actually generally don’t? Also, do we think they’re using speech recognition of whatever they hear, or are they streaming a load of data (and using all the user’s PAID bandwidth to do this?) This does make me really suspicious of so called smart TVs… NEVER connect those bad boys to the network… no matter how much they beg. If you want to check for updates, run a wired line to the device, do the check, then disconnect it and leave it disconnected. What other devices do we think they can use? Smart speakers? Does my WEMO switch have a microphone?

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All I can say is, support the EFF!

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NEVER connect those bad boys to the network… no matter how much they beg. If you want to check for updates, run a wired line to the device, do the check, then disconnect it and leave it disconnected.

Good advice!

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Wow. Reading that page from CMG is eye-opening. I wish they provided more detail without having to request information.

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Hmmm, so maybe it was a lot of marketing hokum? Still, it seems like they might well try to go there if they’re not regulated away from such a plan.

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This feels more like snake oil to me than CMG is selling to make themselves look good. I don’t understand how they can be single handedly bypassing operating system level controls over physical hardware.

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It was a pretty outrageous claim. But the more publicity it gets, the less likely they hopefully will be to try to go there. Certainly reinforces the distrust of smart TVs.

I do recall an “all hands” video meeting during the pandemic called by a very important person where he had to be asked to unplug the smart speaker visible behind him…

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That’s all well and good, but the amount of money it would cost to capture, store, and process that much audio would make it prohibitively expensive. I’d love some proof of this actually happening.

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I’m not disagreeing. I just found it amusing that it was documented policy in his organisation and he of all people would need to be reminded of it.