Ads Using Inaudible Sound To Link Your Phone, TV, Tablet, And PC

Megalith

Megalith

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Some of this reads like it came straight out of a conspiracist’s notebook. Thanks to those who sent this in.

…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.
 
Right, because most peoples TV's (and damn near all speakers ever made) can play beyond 18-20Khz.

Most speakers at 30-40" ON axis can easily be down 10db at 18-20Khz. Factor in off axis response and increased distance and you could be in the 20-30db range.

But I would love to be proven wrong. Implementing the tracking would be even more tricky....as far as not letting the consumer actively know.
 
My cheap logitec speakers were able to affect my 34yo daughter in the next room at 22khz twice, so good controlled conditions.
 
Using Noise Meter app on my smartphone and playing a 20khz tone from Online Tone Generator. In the next room the baseline was 9 to 10db without and 15db with the tone. So my phone was able to pick it up 15 feet away.
 
From the article: "The inaudible code is recognized and received on the other smart device by the software development kit installed on it."

Who is going to install this crap (knowingly) on their smart device? Nobody. Are they talking rootkit- or malware-type behavior where it installs silently in the background or is a hidden part of another app the user installs? Of course they are.

And people wonder why their batteries don't last long on their smart phone....
 
Great. I have Meniere's Disease in my right ear.. I've lost a lot of low to midrange hearing but have high pitched tinnitus and sensitivity to higher pitched sounds that can give me instant vertigo attacks.
 
the article said:
]SilverPush’s company policy is to not "divulge the names of the apps the technology is embedded," meaning that users have no knowledge of which apps are using this technology and no way to opt-out of this practice. As of April of 2015, SilverPush’s software is used by 67 apps and the company monitors 18 million smartphones.
Click to expand...

Any thoughts on tactics for detecting or counteracting Silverpush? Detecting the ultrasonics is not useful; it's the listening apps on the phones you want to discover and kill. Perhaps a filter that prevents your phone's microphone from listening to sounds above audible range. Or an app that detects activity on the phone triggered by ultrasonic noise, by detecting the ultrasonic noises and watching for corresponding activity on the phone.
 
Azrak said:
From the article: "The inaudible code is recognized and received on the other smart device by the software development kit installed on it."

Who is going to install this crap (knowingly) on their smart device? Nobody. Are they talking rootkit- or malware-type behavior where it installs silently in the background or is a hidden part of another app the user installs? Of course they are.

And people wonder why their batteries don't last long on their smart phone....
Click to expand...

Or they provide a reasonable excuse for loading such an app. Like say, an app that identified music that's playing by using the microphone.

Ahh right, they have that, it's called Shazam. Today Shazam was running a commercial during college football offering free stuff if you opened the app while their commercial was playing (a distinctive audio sequence).
 
I'm no lawyer or legal expert but is this not some sort of infringement on my privacy.

Was just talking to my wife today that in 6 months my smart phone and contract expires and I will be downgrading. I do not need or want a data plan or txt any longer as my daughter is to old to track, she is a big grl now. If someone wants to get me call or come to my shop.

Getting tired of this intrusion crap.
 
westrock2000 said:
Right, because most peoples TV's (and damn near all speakers ever made) can play beyond 18-20Khz.

Most speakers at 30-40" ON axis can easily be down 10db at 18-20Khz. Factor in off axis response and increased distance and you could be in the 20-30db range.

But I would love to be proven wrong. Implementing the tracking would be even more tricky....as far as not letting the consumer actively know.
Click to expand...

Chromecast uses sub ultrasonic frequency to link a mobile device when they are not connected to the same wireless network.
The technology here wouldn't be all that different, Chromecast links with a unique pin- the advertising platform would have the same tech behind it. Most people can't hear sounds above 14-15kHz very well anyway and superimposing it with the sonic range of an advertisement (human voice being the most common element in the range of 300Hz-30KHz) would make it completely imperceptible.
 
Read the whole article. This isn't theory. The claim is made that what was it... 18 vendors use this tech, and it's already installed on over 18 million phones?

How many tablets? How many PCs? How many TVs?

And above all how is this crap not horribly, horribly illegal?
 
The only way I could see this working is if you're dumb enough to have your phone listening for OKGoogle/Siri/Cortana 24/7. Why else would somone allow their phone mic to be enabled?
 
whipster said:
My cheap logitec speakers were able to affect my 34yo daughter in the next room at 22khz twice, so good controlled conditions.
Click to expand...

That proves nothing. Your cheap logitech speakers probably have distortion that's so high that it can still be heard 3-4 octaves lower :D
 
B00nie said:
That proves nothing. Your cheap logitech speakers probably have distortion that's so high that it can still be heard 3-4 octaves lower :D
Click to expand...

If that's the case then we would have heard it. There was no audible sound coming from the speakers except at that frequency. So it proves just what I said. The PC and speakers can produce the sounds in that range. Of course I have no idea if that's the frequencies the app/add makers use. (logitec x540)(MSI MB audio)
 
whipster said:
If that's the case then we would have heard it. There was no audible sound coming from the speakers except at that frequency. So it proves just what I said. The PC and speakers can produce the sounds in that range. Of course I have no idea if that's the frequencies the app/add makers use. (logitec x540)(MSI MB audio)
Click to expand...

Since a normal human can't hear above 20khz (and most adults hearing range stops around 16khz) I find that highly doubtful.
 
So in summary... a pre-installed application was able to establish communication...

why is this news.
if the article stated whatsapp is being used to facilitate associated devices ... well thats different.
 
Doesn't the usual lowpass filter that usually gets applied to compressed audio get rid of it all?
 
avinash60 said:
Chromecast uses sub ultrasonic frequency to link a mobile device when they are not connected to the same wireless network.
The technology here wouldn't be all that different, Chromecast links with a unique pin- the advertising platform would have the same tech behind it. Most people can't hear sounds above 14-15kHz very well anyway and superimposing it with the sonic range of an advertisement (human voice being the most common element in the range of 300Hz-30KHz) would make it completely imperceptible.
Click to expand...

You can't mask 15kHz with 3kHz very well. But you can mask signals at 3kHz with other sounds at 3kHz. You can embed sounds & sound patterns in sound a machine can discern that a human can't hear above what is normally being broadcast.

In other news, I was talking yesterday and said "lawn tractor", 2 seconds later my brother's phone was serving ads for lawn tractors.
 
B00nie said:
Since a normal human can't hear above 20khz (and most adults hearing range stops around 16khz) I find that highly doubtful.
Click to expand...

I can't change the fact she could hear it. I understand the normal hearing parameters and was shocked to see these results totally out of the blue. My ears test out to 16.5k so around average or so for my age.

Anyway, I was trying to make a point that the hardware seems to support this subject.
 
I'd also like to point out to all the skeptics saying "well there's no way I'd ever let that software be on my phone!", smartphone manufacturers will probably be lined up to have this technology pre-installed.
 
Time for hardware mods to disable your gps, mic, and other sensors with a button? Probably cause some problems though :D
 
UrielDagda said:
Great. I have Meniere's Disease in my right ear.. I've lost a lot of low to midrange hearing but have high pitched tinnitus and sensitivity to higher pitched sounds that can give me instant vertigo attacks.
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that, no pun intended. Meniere's is terrible.
 
Someone notify PETA. Think of the millions of poor dogs and cats who's ears are being needlessly tortured!
 
LOL at all the people with a fetish for new technologies and devices. You totally asked for the dumb world you live in now because you're so addicted to your stupid internet connected creepy devices that even though its constantly watching you, you rationalized it out in your head to keep using it because you can't put them down.
 
The part that bothers me is the fact that a web page would even have access to your sound hardware in first place. Especially the mic... that alone is what is alarming. Ex: if it wants to link my PC and smartphone and the smartphone is making the sound the web page on the PC needs to access the mic. Why is this even possible to do? Browsers today are so insecure...
 
Azrak said:
Who is going to install this crap (knowingly) on their smart device? Nobody. Are they talking rootkit- or malware-type behavior where it installs silently in the background or is a hidden part of another app the user installs? Of course they are.

...
Click to expand...

You're not thinking Google enough. The worlds largest advertising company has likely embedded the "feature" directly into Android.
 
Here's an interesting effort in which someone recorded some TV audio to see if they could actually catch some audio beacons in action. Interesting details include that TV audio consistently rolls off at 18 kHz.

I think they didn't find any beacons because this article notes that SilverPush is claiming that audio tracking is only operating in India at this time, though they seem quite intent on expanding into other countries.
 
evilsofa said:
Here's an interesting effort in which someone recorded some TV audio to see if they could actually catch some audio beacons in action. Interesting details include that TV audio consistently rolls off at 18 kHz.

I think they didn't find any beacons because this article notes that SilverPush is claiming that audio tracking is only operating in India at this time, though they seem quite intent on expanding into other countries.
Click to expand...

Does a Google even need it? They could use either speech recognition like "Google Now" and cross reference the dialog in what you are watching against known scripts to determine what you are watching or use audio recognition technology like those services that will identify a song playing for you. This is budget version of what already can be done by more brute force means.
 
while some people here is worried about legality i applaud for the creativity they are using for research and marketing; wouldve never thought they would collect data that way.
 
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