This is supposed to be a leak from some advertising company (CMG?) pitching their offering to various customers.
It’s a bit vague which devices and how they are doing it (hey I thought they restricted hardware access! Oh wait they’re advertising companies too…), but Google, Amazon and Facebook are called out specifically as partners…
I really hope one day we can live in a world where such things are outlawed and considered as bad behavior that we shouldn’t just submit to.
Most people I know, while they care, feel powerless to change anything and gotta use those devices anyway to participate in many areas of today’s world, sadly…
Perhaps one day there’ll be a critical mass of people who opt-out/refuse to submit, until then I suppose it’ll keep getting worse as alternatives are strangled.
That’s why I’ll never use domotics at home, although I dreamed it since I was kid, except using ONLY Linux devices!
What I hope is to have Linux-FOSS domotics within 20 years so when I’ll be old and alone I’ll have my trusted housekeeper-nurse Linux robot to help me
Another subsidiary is Cox Communications, which is a major cable television and broadband internet provider in the U.S.
My internet provider…
In the U.S., unfortunately most communities/regions have only one good choice of broadband provider, thanks to monopolization, and possibly collusion.
By the way, Cox Communications also provides “free” public wifi access for their residential broadband customers. All you have to do is sign in wherever you go in the coverage area.
There was a show discussing it on FRANCE 24 English a few days ago. The invitated expert suggested that the company is probably using “active listening” program on smarphones, smart TVs, other smart devices. It is similar to waiting for the wake word for voice assistant and may supposedly be within the same legal framework of the terms of service agreed to when buying the new device. My take-away is to avoid buying smart devices with terms allowing to collect voice data. However, it is still difficult to avoid being surrounded by them.
