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

  • @[email protected]
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    4711 months ago

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

    • @residentmarchant
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      611 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.

    • @DrGunjah
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      311 months ago

      well, you call it dystopia, they call it brainstorming :P

  • Sabata11792
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    4211 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.

    • @TORFdot0OP
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      1911 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.

      • Sabata11792
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        1211 months ago

        Comcast owns my area with fake competition from Verizon. "WeRe TecHnIcaLlY nOt A mOnoPolY. "

    • @Fredselfish
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      1011 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
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        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          111 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
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            311 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.

            • @[email protected]
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              111 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          111 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      311 months ago

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

      • Sabata11792
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        211 months ago

        I think breaking port forward was to get you to use there damn app.

    • @RaoulDook
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      311 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
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        511 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
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      011 months ago

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

      • Sabata11792
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        311 months ago

        Not available. Comcast would never allow it. They got there foul tendrils down to the municipal level.

      • @TORFdot0OP
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        611 months ago

        You’re welcome. I’m hopeful that we can get native cross posting added to Lemmy at some point to make these easier to share stuff to multiple communities in the future

        • @Feathercrown
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          111 months ago

          Don’t all posts have a crosspost button?

  • @Nobody
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    1311 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?

    • @TORFdot0OP
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      2011 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
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        111 months ago

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

        • @Gamoc
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          111 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.

  • @replicat
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    1011 months ago

    Suspicious that this article was written by Joseph Cox.

  • @[email protected]
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    811 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

    • @[email protected]
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      411 months ago

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

  • @egeres
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    211 months ago

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