Re:What Vizio was doing behind the TV screen
by FullMtlAlcoholc on Wednesday February 08, 2017 @02:23AM
(#13596489)
It doesn't even require anything that complex. If I remember correctly, even if your smartphone never connects to wifi AP's, while thhe WiFi radio is on, it does periodically scan for AP's in the area while either surrendering some identifiable information or establishing a pattern that can be used to identify you.
Frak it, TV is going in a Faraday cage
We already see this with things like ultrasonic communication. A compromised (has sketchy app installed) phone could, for example, communicate with your television or computer speakers and mic via ultrasonic frequencies to determine what ads you have seen, or what digital streaming content you are consuming.
An app could take it even a step further and use a root exploit and secretly take a short recording every 10 minutes or so to relay to someone who wants to know what song or movie you were consuming.
This isn't just possible, things like this have already been found in the wild.
And you can bet your bottom dollar these snaky companies would keep their mouths shut under a NSL if it meant they could keep tracking you.
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/11/ads_surreptit...