Ars Technica:
Privacy advocates are warning federal authorities of a new threat that uses inaudible, high-frequency sounds to surreptitiously track a person’s online behavior across a range of devices, including phones, TVs, tablets, and computers.
The ultrasonic pitches are embedded into TV commercials or are played when a user encounters an ad displayed in a computer browser. While the sound can’t be heard by the human ear, nearby tablets and smartphones can detect it. When they do, browser cookies can now pair a single user to multiple devices and keep track of what TV commercials the person sees, how long the person watches the ads, and whether the person acts on the ads by doing a Web search or buying a product.
And the ad industry wonders why we hate them and happily use ad blockers.
People need to be tracking which advertisers do this, and these lists need to be published & updated.
People need to have far better critical thinking skills so that they can see that this is just sensationalism on Ars Technica’s part. Being a super technical guy, I can see that this is so impractical and unreliable that it’s pretty much useless.
All one has to do is look for the missing information here, and you will quickly “see” the problems. This article only made me think less of Ars Technica’s journalism and fact-checking.
I can’t even get hey Siri to work properly and I AM ALLOWING access to the microphone and TRAINING Siri as to what I sound like.
So I am not all to worried about this to be quite honest.
It’s a scary concept, but there are many scary concepts and malware. Just think of the permissions from device to device that would have to be allowed. Never mind the limitations of the devices themselves.
This one seems like it’d never get off the ground, if in fact it has at all already.
Also, I’m getting tired of yelling “hey Siri” and listening to my wife laugh in the car. : P
Hey Mark, it usually helps to elaborate a little.