Just in time for the new season of Black
Mirror, another report of a company using smartphones to listen
in on users has surfaced. The New
York Times reported this week that a number of apps are
using software produced by a startup called Alphonso and it uses a smartphone's
microphone to listen for particular audio signals in TV shows, advertisements
and movies. In many cases, Alphonso then has Shazam identify what those audio
snippets are and all of the collected data can then be sold to advertisers who
can use it to better target their ads.
Alphonso
says that its software doesn't record human speech and that its practices are
included in app descriptions and privacy policies. Users also have to agree to
open up their microphones and location services to the apps before Alphonso's
software does any data collection. "The consumer is opting in knowingly
and can opt out any time," Ashish Chordia, Alphonso's CEO, told the New York Times.
While the New York Timesspotted
over 250 games in the Google Play store that used Alphonso's software, as well
as some in Apple's App Store, Alphonso says there are around 1,000 apps using
its product. And although Chordia said that the company didn't support the use
of its software in kids' apps, the New
York Times found a few apps geared towards children that did
integrate Alphonso's software.
This
certainly isn't the first time a company has found itself in hot water for
using people's smartphones to listen in on what they watch. Last year,
the FTC sent warnings to 12 developers whose apps
contained Silverpush software, which used a similar framework to
tap into users' viewing habits, and didn't inform customers. And earlier this
year, Vizio paid the FTC and New Jersey $2.2 million to settle charges over tracking users' viewing
histories across 11 million smart TVs.
While
Alphonso says its practices are on the up and up and in accordance with FTC
regulations, others say that's not really enough. "We have to be really
careful as we have more devices capturing more information in living rooms and
bedrooms and on the street and in other people's homes that the public is not
blindsided and surprised by things," Dave Morgan, CEO of Simulmedia, which
works with advertisers on targeted TV ads, told the New York Times.
"It's not what's legal. It is what's not creepy."
