Over 200 Android Apps Are Currently Using Ultrasonic Beacons To Track Users (bleepingcomputer.com)

Catalin Cimpanu, writing for BleepingComputer: A team of researchers from the Brunswick Technical University in Germany has discovered an alarming number of Android apps (234, to be exact) that employ ultrasonic tracking beacons to track users and their nearby environment. Their research paper focused on the technology of ultrasound cross-device tracking (uXDT) that became very popular in the last three years. uXDT is the practice of advertisers hiding ultrasounds in their ads. When the ad plays on a TV or radio, or some ad code runs on a mobile or computer, it emits ultrasounds that are picked up by the microphone of nearby laptops, desktops, tablets or smartphones. SDKs embedded in apps installed on those devices relay the beacon back to the online advertiser, who then knows that the user of TV "x" is also the owner of smartphone "Y" and links their two previous advertising profiles together, creating a broader picture of the user's interests, device portfolio, home, and even family members.

Comments

Re:Oy, how to block this?

[FatdogHaiku]

'yes', 'no', and 'fake it'.

This is pure evil genius.

Pretty sure it's also the foundation of some marriages...

Re:Oy, how to block this?

[Rakarra]

1a) Hardware switches need to come back into fashion. CUT THE WIRES. Since physical switches have an irritating habit of failing, they need to be easily replaceable, so they need to plug in and touch contact points, not be soldered in.

But then you would have to increase the thickness of the phone by 0.5mm, and that would be a FUCKING DISASTER.

Re:It's more sinister than that

[Anonymous Coward]

"Hey there, Jim. Looks like you're in the market for a new TV. This Samsung 65" 4K model would look perfect from any point in your 10' by 20' living room. If you're not sure, just go ask Bob next door. He bought one last week and the whole family has been enjoying its crystal clear display. You can even control it from your iPhone 6 Plus, but the experience is much better with a new Samsung phone. Have you considered upgrading that? Don't worry, your MacBook Air will still connect to any new Samsung phone or television. What do you say Jimbo? Oh, you're more interested in the 50" models? You wouldn't be getting quite the same experience, but... Oh no, Jimmy, you don't want one of those Vizios, just slide on back to the Samsungs. Jimboree? Jim-jam? James? Come back here before I tell your wife where you were last Thursday night."

Re:I think Facebook does it too

[Anne Thwacks]

For the past few months, my laptop speakers have been emitting a quick data "chirp" very sporadically. It's modulated frequencies above 10k, a duration of 0.5 to 0.75 seconds, and it happens on a very irregular basis.

Switch to Ubuntu: every time you logout, your sound system will switch back to default settings that won't work, and you will only remember to reconfigure it when you actually want to hear something, and then you can spend 20 mins getting it working again, by which time the bug infested chirpy-chirpy-cheep-cheep app will probably have crashed anyway..