Television adverts can order a smartphone to begin surveilling its owner
Posted on 05/08/2017 11:57:56 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Popular apps downloaded by millions of people are always on the look out for clandestine broadcasts which order them to begin snooping on citizens
SECRET messages hidden in television adverts can order smartphones to quietly spy on their owners.
That’s the shocking revelation in a new piece of research which exposes the scary snooping techniques corporations are using to pry into ordinary people’s lives in unprecedented detail.
Television adverts can order a smartphone to begin surveilling its owner A team of German academics have noticed a huge growth in the number of Android apps that are designed to look out for inaudible “ultrasonic” signals.
These signals contain a code which orders the apps to begin tracking people’s location, work out what they are watching on television and even expose intimate secrets about their personal life, such as their political affiliation or love of pornography.
They have alleged that multinational corporations such as Krispy Kreme and McDonald’s have fitted the snooping software within apps.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesun.co.uk ...
Android Phone Apps listening for sub-audible sound signals can start monitoring user’s activities and then reporting said garnered privacy violating data back to servers run by the App authors for advertising data purposes. . . or perhaps other more malicious purposes. NOT GOOD. PING for your list member’s awareness.
Yet another confirmation that getting rid of the TV 39 years ago was a good idea.
Sweet! Ain’t technology cool?!?!?!
Of course, if you don’t have a smart phone then ........
There is maybe once or twice a year that I wish I had a mobile phone. But that is made up for the rest of time I enjoy not having one
If they catch words like “right wing”, “christian”, “conservative”, “pro-life” on your phone I’m sure you’re added to a government black list they are just waiting to use.
Same here. Well we have ONE smart phone that we share. It’s not even that smart. I keep using it but I don’t get any smarter.
i turn on the TV once every 90 days maybe.
Maybe I ought to leave mine when not in use by a TV running TCM all the time.
I don’t have a smart TV and don’t want one ever.
These “academics” claim to have uncovered 234 Android apps using uXDT (ultrasonic tracking technology).
They have apparently refused to release the list of those apps.
Why not? Fear of lawsuits? Fishing for research grants? Or is this just FUD to begin with?
Has there been a recent outbreak of dogs howling at the TV during commercials? I recall in my younger days being able to hear ultrasonic burglar alarms and traffic light controllers. Can younger humans hear these beacons (said to be 18-20 kHz)?
And why in the world would anybody want to have a KrispyKreme or McDonald’s app on their phone?
BUMP
Companies use these apps to push their specials. Some people like being amongst the first to get the seasonal or limited time offered wares.
The only question I have is why these companies want to make use of spyware.
Smart phones are great.
I have a GPS, a web browser, a Kindle, Pandora, and Audible when I need them.
I don’t have a enough memory to put any other interesting apps on it though.
; At no point in history has any government ever wanted its people to be defenseless for any good reason ~ nully's son
Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...
putting a McDs and KK app on my phone?
seriesly now,,
Just this morning I got an alert from Gmail on my Android S7 "Couldn't send attachment" and I was like WTF because I hadn't even picked up my phone yet. It tried to email my primary email account with an attachment! I scanned for malware and nothing came up....TBC...
Article and comments #2, & #11.
Thanx Nully
Hmm, Google already seems to know everything about me, not sure there's much else to learn. Note to advertisers and companies that publish apps: I find out you've incorporated this software into an app I have, I'm deleting that app, same day, never coming back.
For now, I'd recommend a couple of security precautions on this. One, completely close apps when not in use, don't let them run in the background. Two, avoid "quick and dirty" sole-use apps. For example, my car dealership has an app to "connect" me with them. A local pizza place does too. Or our local TV news station... All these cheesy little apps are just the kinds of places this kind of tracking software make lurk.
Uh, no. There should be no gathering of information aka spying at all. It should be against the law with long prison sentences.
We share a flip phone that I use twice a year. Not much to spy on outside FR which "they" have done.
You mean the 25 MB Flashlight/TacoBell ap that needs access to every other app and function on my phone, JUST TO TURN ON THE LED WHEN I WANT TO ORDER A TACO, is full of bugs, ransomware and drains my battery in a half an hour?
I wish they wouldn’t do that.
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