While I’m dubious of the claim due to the robust permissions management in the latest versions of iOS and Android, it is interesting that a company has come out and said they are doing what everyone is thinking.

And yes they are a subsidiary of the parent of Cox Communications, the ISP, so I would be switching to a competitor ASAP if I had their services

  • calabast@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    46
    ·
    11 months ago

    They’re like “we should address the fact that this product sounds exactly like a bleak dystopian future”

    • residentmarchant@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      11 months ago

      The comparisons to Black Mirror are crazy considering that the show serves to always show the downsides of dystopian tech.

      Weird for a self proclaimed marketing company to not know that.

  • Sabata11792@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    42
    ·
    11 months ago

    American ISPs have no alternatives. Switching to competition usually requires moving a few states away uness you want 2000s DSL for $80 a month.

    • TORFdot0@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      11 months ago

      I used to live in Cox’s service area and before I moved they were pretty much the only show in town besides overpriced AT&T UVerse DSL. AT&T actually did upgrade the service to fiber but they called to offer it after we already closed on our current home at that point which actually has awesome fiber service from a local provider.

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      11 months ago

      FUCK we have Cox and my alternative would be using my cellphone. This shit should be illegal? Is it thier modem and router? They really hate if you use your own.

      • Sabata11792@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        I have to use their router or they will not give me my static IP. Atleast I can still set it pass everything to a useful router.

        They even broke port forwards if I was just using their shit hardware.

        Its 100% illegal but they pay Congress a lot of money.

        • aStonedSanta@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          11 months ago

          ??? They only offer static ips on business as far as I’m aware and they don’t care what router you use.

          • Sabata11792@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            11 months ago

            It’s a business plan since I like hosting small stuff. I think they tie the static ip to an account number or mac address on the router. I just set it up to bridge since it so crap.

            • aStonedSanta@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              11 months ago

              If it’s the technicolor you are not required to use that afaik. I have an SB8200 and my own router. Just configured the router to my static ip. Had to power cycle the modem and I was good.

        • shadow@lemmy.sdf.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          11 months ago

          If you’re able, try and trust a VPN provider, and route all your networking traffic through them. At least that’ll cut out your ISP from being able to harvest as much.

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      11 months ago

      FWIW a VPN prevents them from inspecting your traffic, so if you’re concerned about this it might be a worthwhile investment.

    • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      11 months ago

      it has gotten a lot better in recent years with rural broadband at least

      I have 2 different ISP options for fiber to the home now, both local smaller companies rather than the mega ISPs we all know and hate. Prices are about $50 / 100Mb symmetrical for both ISPs

      • Sabata11792@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        11 months ago

        I pay $150 for the same speed. No options. They even lie tell you its twice the speed even though it never actually changed.

    • DuckOverload@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      11 months ago

      If you really want to escape from the data-mining ad-driven model, you could always switch to Google Fiber.

  • Nobody@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    11 months ago

    They’re all doing it. We’re carrying around listening devices 24/7 and expecting evil corporations not to spy on everything we say and do… why? Because they said they wouldn’t? Because they put their customers ahead of profits? What have these companies done to earn even the slightest degree of trust?

    • TORFdot0@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      11 months ago

      It’s the technical hurdles that have me skeptical that they could do it, at a cost that is profitable, without it being widely known how. Either it’s novel and not being done by anyone by CMG; or it’s not, in which case why is CMG marketing like they are the only ones doing it.

      But it’s probably safer to assume that everyone is already listening in so that you are prepared because you know they would if they could.

      • Copernican@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        Yeah, Amazon laying off a lot of folks in their Alexa division makes me skeptical this is real and is scalable.

        • Gamoc@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          11 months ago

          Amazon failed with Alexa because they couldn’t monetize it enough to make it profitable. If you’re using it to spy and sell data, there’s your profit.

  • aStonedSanta@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    11 months ago

    CMG said in a statement that “CMG Local Solutions markets a wide range of advertising tools. Like other advertising companies, some of those tools include third-party vendor products powered by data sets sourced from users by various social media and other applications then packaged and resold to data servicers. Advertising data based on voice and other data is collected by these platforms and devices under the terms and conditions provided by those apps and accepted by their users, and can then be sold to third-party companies and converted into anonymized information for advertisers. This anonymized data then is resold by numerous advertising companies.” “CMG businesses do not listen to any conversations or have access to anything beyond a third-party aggregated, anonymized and fully encrypted data set that can be used for ad placement. We regret any confusion and we are committed to ensuring our marketing is clear and transparent,” the statement added.

    lol they are just paying Facebook and other companies for data

    • vext01@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      11 months ago

      If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever

  • egeres@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    11 months ago

    (In case we didn’t have enough with dropbox selling our data for AI training!)