How Hackers Can Use Pop Songs To 'Watch' You

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fast Company: Forget your classic listening device: Researchers at the University of Washington have demonstrated that phones, smart TVs, Amazon Echo-like assistants, and other devices equipped with speakers and microphones could be used by hackers as clandestine sonar "bugs" capable of tracking your location in a room. Their system, called CovertBand, emits high-pitched sonar signals hidden within popular songs -- their examples include songs by Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake -- then records them with the machine's microphone to detect people's activities. Jumping, walking, and "supine pelvic tilts" all produce distinguishable patterns, they say in a paper. (Of course, someone who hacked the microphone on a smart TV or computer could likely listen to its users, as well.)

good choice

[roc97007]

> their examples include songs by Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake

Good choices. Already lots of high pitched noises.

Tracked by pop songs

[freeze128]

Songs by those artists haven't been popular for a long time. Not only can hackers tell your location in a room, they can also tell how old you are.

Bruce Wayne

[hackwrench]

This was in one of the Batman movies. Not news.

Such a title!

[Gravis Zero]

It's on par with, Dentists Can Use Fillings to 'Control' Your Diet. I mean, one could make a strainged argument to this idea but by and large dentists cannot use fillings to control your diet in the same way that hackers cannot use a song cannot watch you.

BTW, if your dentist tries to give you a "cyanide filling" then he's trying to kill you. #DentalAssassinsEverywhere ;)

Re:Such a title!

[Scarletdown]

I translated it as "Another highly unlikely nonissue is concocted to help keep you frightened of the world around you and distrustful of everyone except your handlers."

Re:

[MightyYar]

Fear in headlines is apparently good business. I'd have gone with: "Echo Location With Your Echo". Or some other play words.

By why not go full retard? "Hackers added hidden sounds to a pop song - you won't believe what happens next!"

Re:

[Gravis Zero]

By why not go full retard?

never go full retard.

ubiquitous, panoptic

[Reverend Green]

The machine is always watching.

And the blind man

[AndyKron]

I know I know, and a blind man can tell when a person enters the bathroom by the echos from his piss, although he probably heard to the door open too.

Good use for Somebody's Watching Me

[HalAtWork]

And I have no privacy! [youtube.com]

Re:

[HalAtWork]

Man I really messed up that link, here's the original video [youtube.com], my apologies

Supine but not prone?

[Chelloveck]

Jumping, walking, and "supine pelvic tilts" all produce distinguishable patterns

In other words, this exists because somebody wanted to find out if his girlfriend was cheating on him.

Easier and More Accurate

[Luthair]

If they've gone to the difficulty of hacking a device in your own that plays music and has a microphone, why not just hack their devices and use the camera. As an added bonus it works when the user isn't playing music.

Safety of these ultrasonic output

[iridium_ionizer]

So who is verifying the safety of these ultrasonic output. Maybe I am being paranoid, but the US diplomats in Cuba [www.cbc.ca] were recently attacked in their residences with ultrasonic devices that were undetectable, except for the symptoms (severe hearing loss, migraine headaches, nausea).

It's probably several orders of magnitude different in energy output, but I would still like to think some accountable government organization signed off on this usage - not just the company feeling that its okay. After all, if y

Rather Enterprises than hackers...

[Chris Vanderheyden]

From a privacy point of view I'm a LOT more concerned for the companies that produce these products rather than hackers. If hackers can hack the devices to implement an ultrasonic body movement tracker, who guarantees that Google and Amazon haven't already done so in their factory fresh devices?