the company itself has admitted that their claims were exaggerated.
Comment on Marketer sparks panic with claims it uses smart devices to eavesdrop on people
foggy@lemmy.world 9 months ago
“guys google assistant isn’t always listening lol it only wakes up on the trigger word. you people know nothing about IT or how good marketers are at guessing” -10,000,000 neckbeards for the last decade, despite everyone’s obvious anecdotal experiences that are just too bullshit to ignore.
Did it really take them admitting it for a publication to talk about it?
noodlejetski@lemm.ee 9 months ago
TimeSquirrel@kbin.social 9 months ago
At the risk of being called a neckbeard:
Before Cox Media Group sent its statement, though, CMG's claims of collecting data on "casual conversations in real-time," as its blog stated, were questionable. CMG never explained how our devices would somehow be able to garner the computing and networking power necessary to record and send every conversation spoken within the device's range in "real-time," unbeknownst to the device's owner. The firm also never explained how it acquired the type of access that requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant. This is despite CMG's blog claiming that with Active Listening, advertisers would be able to know "the second someone in your area is concerned about mold in their closet," for example.
In other words, they were hyping up capabilities they don't have.
Are you familiar with Wireshark and network sniffing? Instead of just wondering, why not look for yourself what these devices are sending out? It's not hard, and it's not a secret.
currycourier@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Are you able to dissect the packet contents tho? I can see the raw hex payloads of any packets on my network but that doesn’t really tell me much about the data actually in them
TimeSquirrel@kbin.social 9 months ago
You can at the very least tell when it is and is not transmitting data when you talk around it.
peopleproblems@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Is there a way to route traffic from the router to Wireshark? Or would this require a router capable of like OpenWRT?
I have a stupid linksys that has awesome wifi power, but I can’t seem to get custom firmware on it. I might be able to configure it as an access point.
TimeSquirrel@kbin.social 9 months ago
My router is a full on Linux Server PC in a rack, so in my case I can just monitor all its interfaces directly on the box.
An easy way to do in your case if you have a gimped ISP provided router is to find an old hub (not a switch), plug a wireless access point into that, and have the device connect only to that access point. Then plug your laptop or computer into one of the other hub ports and you should be able to listen in on everything being sent across that hub.
More advanced switches might be able to do port-mirroring, which accomplishes the same thing.
peopleproblems@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Haha I have of those thanks.
SuckMyWang@lemmy.world 9 months ago
It was the admission that was the news. People know they are being gaslit so when someone finally admits they are gaslighting you you can and should make them pay. Problem with gaslighting is that you don’t have proof, but you know
null@slrpnk.net 9 months ago
You love to see the angry little edit.
dalekcaan@lemm.ee 9 months ago
“I got one downvote and a few people sharing facts that dispute my comment. It’s a witch-hunt 😠”
c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 9 months ago
mUsT bE tHe nEcKbEaRdS
fishos@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Just because you don’t understand statistics and metadata analysis doesn’t make it fake. And of course, since it’s real, you can surely point to all the apps whose network traffic was monitored and all the voice data constantly being transmitted that was captured. Because surely in an era where many people pay for data, it’d be impossible to miss the constant audio stream coming from every one of these devices eating up your bandwidth cap.
But nah, “I feel this is true” is all we need. Even when the person who says it, and said it to advertise their product, admits they lied for sales.
Are they tracking you? You bet. If you think they’re so unsophisticated that they need to literally listen to your every word instead of the millions of other data points you FREELY give away already, you just don’t understand the tech and are fear mongering.
c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Exactly, their predictive algorithms are entirely too accurate and it’s not just clicking on or searching for products that gives them the information. Even how long it took you to scroll past something is used to analyze potential future behavior and deliver you ads.
You take in so much content everyday that you don’t even realize. They probably saw plenty of them that OP didn’t even realize, I’m sure they gave it away via some other means.
People have tested this before and gotten no additional ads based on their words, it’s all anecdotal.
TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id 9 months ago
Of course sometimes the predictive algorithms are wildly and hilariously inaccurate too, as we should expect.
c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Yeah I’ve gotten weird ads that were specifically targeted but they predicted me incorrectly, of course OP’s confirmation bias is showing here as I’m sure he didn’t notice all of that.