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Customer Service Agents Might Be Able To See What You're Typing In Real Time (gizmodo.com) 135

Posted by BeauHD from the public-service-announcement dept.
Gizmodo is warning that some customer service agents might be able to see what you're typing in real time. A reader sent them a transcript from a conversation they had with a mattress company after the agent responded to a message he hadn't sent yet. From the report: Something similar recently happened to HmmDaily's Tom Scocca. He got a detailed answer from an agent one second after he hit send. Googling led Scocca to a live chat service that offers a feature it calls "real-time typing view" to allow agents to have their "answers prepared before the customer submits his questions." Another live chat service, which lists McDonalds, Ikea, and Paypal as its customers, calls the same feature "message sneak peek," saying it will allow you to "see what the visitor is typing in before they send it over." Salesforce Live Agent also offers "sneak peak."

This particular magic trick happens thanks to JavaScript operating in your browser and detecting what's happening on a particular site in real time. It's also how companies capture information you've entered into web forms before you've hit submit. Companies could lessen the creepiness by telling people their typing is seen in real time or could eliminate the send button altogether. So if you don't want to be monitored or send secret messages to agents, put your phone on mute while on hold and copy/paste messages from another document to your customer service chatbox. And in general, be nice to customer service agents. It's not their fault.
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Customer Service Agents Might Be Able To See What You're Typing In Real Time More

Customer Service Agents Might Be Able To See What You're Typing In Real Time

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  • The Logical Solution (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Barny ( 103770 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @08:10PM (#57712130) Journal

    The logical solution would be to insert a false delay of 3-5 seconds whenever the user types something to the CSR's replies so that it is never perceived to be answering too fast.

    As for the creepiness factor—you're typing stuff into a text box on a website, nothing should be considered hidden from them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by JustOK ( 667959 )
      Those few seconds can really eat into profits when you add it all up.

      • Those few seconds can really eat into profits when you add it all up.

        The save-a-penny program:

        When they build your home, unless it's a custom build and you know what to ask for, even the contractors who construct the homes of the regionally better off are prone to shave costs that don't seem like much to the fellow who purchases just the one home. For instance, particle board (OSB), rather than incredibly more durable plywood, is used beneath the sinks in your kitchen and bathroom. Since you're always and eventually only one leak away from standing water on the bottom pla

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 )

        Those few seconds can really eat into profits when you add it all up.

        CSRs are not doing one chat at a time. They are handling a dozen or so simultaneous chats. While you are typing, they are responding to another customer.

        They also have automatic pattern matchers to scan your text for strings related to common questions, and then pre-fill the reply. The CSR just needs to give it a quick glance, and click "send". But that was a few years ago, so the state-of-the-art today may be to just auto-send. This may have been the cause of the "instant reply" mentioned in the summa

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by glitch! ( 57276 )

          I have mod points, but there is no option for INFORMATIVE, INSIGHTFUL, and THIS SYSTEM SHOULD DIE. Customer service agents should do their job, and if the customers are too stupid, just abandon those customers. Let them get their stuff locally. Or at all.

    • If this really bugs you, just type your response into some other text editor. Notepad, or even a comment submission window on slashdot. Then cut and paste it into the CSR window.

      • Re:Easier "solution" (Score:5, Funny)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @04:53AM (#57713502) Homepage Journal

        You can also use this to your advantage by telegraphing your true feelings while maintaining the an unimpeachable polite and calm veneer.

        CSR: We have engineers looking into it now.
        You: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
        You: Okay, thanks. Do you know when it will be fixed?
        CSR: We hope to have the issue resolved by tomorrow.
        You: You told me that yesterday you lyin^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
        You: Are you sure? I really need to get this resolved quickly.
        CSR: I'm sure sir, don't worry.
        You: OK Google take a screenshot^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
        You: OK Google post it to Twitter^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
        You: Thanks, I hope you are right.

    • As for the creepiness factor—you're typing stuff into a text box on a website, nothing should be considered hidden from them.

      Thanks for the tip you smug prick Thanks for the wonderful support!

  • And this surprises anyone? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by uncqual ( 836337 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @08:56PM (#57712274)

    I always assumed that the CSRs could see every keystroke I type in the chatbox.

    If I have a long question (often the first question is long for example), I usually type the text into emacs (and, if I'm being picky, spell check it as well) and then cut and paste into the chatbox just to avoid confusion (such as me leaving out a "not" and later correcting it and the CSR never noticing my correction).

  • I gotta try this (Score:4, Funny)

    by CaptainDork ( 3678879 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @08:57PM (#57712276)

    I just chatted with Amazon support yesterday. I'm gonna type, "Fuck you," and wait for a ten count and then back over it.

  • This is probably happening. Just as likely is the person has a million calls about your issue and knows what you are going to say. They likely have some canned answers. I'm on the other end and I have canned information; I tech support chat so often I have a txt file with everything in it - explanations of troubleshooting processes, error codes, contact information - I know what they are going to ask me. Like I tell my kids, I'm not smart, I'm just old...
  • I had this same experience. He answered a question before I hit send.

  • If you're playing Customer support roulette, you only have to type it once and keep cutting and pasting it as you're handed off to another CSR.

    Maybe save in another window:

      If this isn't fixed today, I'm going to drive down there and exercise my second amendment rights /s

    • Dude, the 2A isn't 'assholes wanting to threaten your life because their 10 mb/s broadband is only testing at 5 mb/s, despite the fact that somebody else in the house is streaming HD Netflix, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'
  • Old news. Very old news

  • about time (Score:2, Insightful)

    by viperidaenz ( 2515578 )

    "live chat" has caught up to ICQ in the 90's.

  • Back in the days of "smart" (and "dumb") terminals, live chat enabled some attacks.

    For instance: sending a control sequence that reprogrammed a "soft key" and then "pressed" it, allowing the attacker to execute commands as if the victim had typed them. (This could include suppressing the visibility on his screen so he didn't know it had been done.)

    I wonder if these systems have an analogous vulnerability?

  • This feature could be used to game the system. Slowly type in some question and leave it for a few seconds for them to digest. Then make a minor change that changes the sense of your question and quickly hit send. If they don’t notice the change, there’s now a chat log in your favour. Profit.

  • I was chatting to my phone company about my modem. They lulled me into a false sense of security by asking for info I'd already given. But a bit later I thought better of a somewhat tetchy paragraph and replaced it with a calmer one. Then they referred to something in the paragraph I had not sent.
    Then they offered to call me and I had a friendly conversation with a nice young lady who fixed my problem. I was left wondering: good customer service, or psychological warfare?

  • My Job Used Software That Provided This Featu (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nichogenius ( 3606787 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @11:41PM (#57712810)
    I used to work in a technical support role. We used a chat service provider called comm100 which does show the agent what you type in real time. At first, I felt dirty like I was invading their privacy, but it does help efficiency considerably. It's invaluable when it comes to de-escalating clients that start to type out a giant rant, then slowly edit it to be more civil... eventually they just chicken out and delete their entire whiny post when they decide it's not worth it. It feels bad and dirty, but also consider that the support agent is usually multi-tasking between clients, so being able to know what you are typing as you are typing it is a real time saver. The worst is when the client has typed out part of a question which you know the answer to and have a full response typed out, then you have to wait for them to hit the 'send' button before you can continue answering the question or solving the problem. Sometimes you have to wait a LONG time.

    • I used to work in a technical support role. We used a chat service provider called comm100 which does show the agent what you type in real time. At first, I felt dirty like I was invading their privacy

      Everyone that designs and installs shit like this knows damn well what they are doing is wrong. They persist only because they get away with it.

      but it does help efficiency considerably.

      Ends justify means?

      but also consider that the support agent is usually multi-tasking between clients, so being able to know what you are typing as you are typing it is a real time saver.

      If knowing is a timesaver and that's truly the justification then the solution is both obvious and trivial. Provide proper feedback in UI design such that end user knows what's happening. This is a trivial and obvious solution. The fact it's not being done speaks volumes to the true intent which is entirely to deceive the customer.

      If Microsoft

  • Normally I am paranoid about privacy, but this seems like a good thing. Why wouldn't you want them to respond faster?

    • Normally I am paranoid about privacy, but this seems like a good thing. Why wouldn't you want them to respond faster?

      Because in real life, you wouldn't say "F*ck you - Wait, let me rephrase that - I am sorry I don't agree..."

  • The chat client ICQ was doing this back in 1998. Why is it surprising that this would still be possible 20 years later?

  • I've already had a couple of conversations with support agents when their replied to the messages I hadn't yet sent which made me feel extremely awkward but now I know that I should never ever paste anything in such chat windows without first verifying that my clipboard contents are the one I really intend to share.
  • At any rate, it is so easy to get around it, if necessary, that it hardly deserves any discussion.

  • Sometimes it is their fault, like when they're trying to do something unethical or illegal with the excuse being that it's part of their job. Fuck them. Fuck them sideways. They're part of the problem. Getting paid for your bad behavior doesn't make it less bad.

  • Evil technology!

    Why, back in my day we called people, and of course the person on the other end of the telephone doesn't hear anything until I finish a sentence... oh wait.

  • There's obviously no reasonable expectation of "privacy" in this scenario -- but frankly, if you're using a computing device of any flavor, and if that device is attached to the internet, then you should probably just automatically assume that anything you do on that device could potentially be tracked. It obviously won't always be the case... but it might be the case, on occasion. This thought process kind'a falls under the "plan for the worst, hope for the best," kind of thing.

    As an obvious direct example

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