Hacker News Reader

Comment by nom | Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't be surprised if Google, Apple or Amazon are doing (or going to do) something similar. It doesn't create much traffic at all, a couple of bytes is enough and they can be tacked on to the data stream without anyone noticing.

Someone should build an ultrasonic detector that can recognize these kind of packets and have a look how wide spread this technique already is. We could also need an ultrasonic jammer and ways to add low pass filters to our mics, like some special tape we can place over it to absorb the high frequencies... maybe normal duct tape is already enough.. hmmm

View on HN

If you're interested in exploring ultrasound in your environment, SpectrumView Plus is a great tool for the job.

http://www.oxfordwaveresearch.com/products/spectrumviewapp/

Nice tool, thanks for the link!

However, we need someone to build an app that can detect ultrasonic FSK signals and log them / pop up a notification. I assume they use short bursts which makes looking at the spectrum constantly unfeasible.

Apple would never do something like this. It's totally against their MO.

Apple is made of people. People who change, people who come and go. Maybe Apple today wouldn't, but tomorrow Apple will be a different company.

Apple's OS design philosophy makes this extremely difficult, even if someone wanted to sneak it in. The OS notifies of such activity (mic active) on a system level, and the permission model requires explicit permission at time of first access attempt, even for most of Apple's own apps.

How could you know this though? There's no source code to audit or anything.

My point is that they could if they wanted to. Granted, they don't need the money, but still... it's something you can easily hide and nobody would be able to tell without spending weeks looking at disassembly.

Oh, but they do need the money. The goal of the company is to maximize profit for the shareholders.

The "maximizing shareholder value" idea is a recent and inaccurate belief.

https://www.fastcompany.com/1680174/maximize-shareholder-val...

Corporations are beholden to their shareholders. This is an obvious and undisputed fact, rather than a belief.

The article you linked questioned the legal and ethical justification for this fact, not its accuracy.

I don't think the word "fact" means what you think it means.

You're putting way too much trust on a company that constantly screws over it's customers to earn some more money by removing ports, putting functionality behind paywall (looking at you Safari extension costs), etc. They're better than Android phones in these matters but their financial position might change some day and they might do it.

Hmm, did't people report that their Amazon devices fire up when Amazon ads are playing on TV?

When the ad uses the trigger phrase, or when it doesn't?

Hidden signals are actually a good way to make the device not fire up in the former case. Signals that don't need to be tracked or stored, of course.

Link, anyone?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com