Privacy and the Clubhouse App

Clubhouse might be the hottest app that's not even publicly available yet, but privacy issues are already being discussed online. Some of the people who are particularly upset? Those who say they have profiles without even having used the app before...

Clubhouse reportedly requests access to your phone's contacts, under the pretense that you can connect with other users of the social network. But people are claiming that Clubhouse takes information from your contact list and builds "shadow profiles" of people who have never signed up...

If you allow Clubhouse to use your contact list, the app then reportedly has access to your contacts' names, phone numbers and how many friends they have on Clubhouse. But that's not all. Privacy advocates note Clubhouse records voice chats of the virtual rooms, which also doesn't sit well with some current users of the app.

Clubhouse's Community Guidelines states: "Solely for the purpose of supporting incident investigations, we temporarily record the audio in a room while the room is live." more

More privacy considerations...
• Clubhouse app technology runs on the platform of Agora.io, an audio tech startup in Shanghai, China.
• Voice recordings may be paired with personal account details, and transferred into a government dossier for future voice identification surveillance purposes.
• What is said using the app may not be very private given hackers, lurkers and government interests. Not a good way to communicate confidentially.

“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member” ― Groucho Marx

 

Dawn of the Vocal Fingerprint

The vast majority of people in developed countries now carry a smartphone everywhere. And while many of us are already well aware of privacy issues associated with smartphones, like their ability to track our movements or even take surreptitious photos, an increasing number of people are starting to worry that their smartphone is actually listening to everything they say.

There might not be much evidence for this but, it turns out, it isn’t far from the truth. Researchers worldwide have begun developing many types of powerful audio analysis AI algorithms that can extract a lot of information about us from sound alone. While this technology is only just beginning to emerge in the real world, these growing capabilities – coupled with its 24/7 presence – could have serious implications for our personal privacy.

Instead of analyzing every word people say, much of the listening AI that has been developed can actually learn a staggering amount of personal information just from the sound of our speech alone. It can determine everything from who you are and where you come from, your current location, your gender and age and what language you’re speaking – all just from the way your voice sounds when you speak.

If that isn’t creepy enough... more

Barbie Learns How to Talk. (It only took her 50 years.)

In a recent demonstration of its Internet-connected doll, Hello Barbie, a Mattel spokesperson greeted the souped-up version of the iconic doll by saying, “Welcome to New York, Barbie.”

Thanks to voice-recognition technology, Barbie was able to analyze that remark and give a relevant, conversational response: “I love New York! Don’t you? Tell me, what’s your favorite part about the city? The food, fashion or the sights?”

The company promises that the software will enable the doll “to listen and learn each girl’s preferences and then adapt to those accordingly.”

The interactive doll is slated to hit shelves in the fall, and Mattel is likely hoping it will help revive sinking sales of its flagship brand.

But a children’s privacy advocacy group is calling for the company to cease production of the toy, saying Hello Barbie might more accurately be called "eavesdropping" Barbie. Because the doll works by recording children’s speech with an embedded microphone and then sending that data over the Web, these advocates call the technology “creepy” and say it could leave children vulnerable to stealth advertising tactics. On Wednesday, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood launched a petition urging Mattel to keep the doll from hitting store shelves. more

"Well, gag me with a spoon!"

Open Your Mouth and You're Nailed

Slate had an interesting article about how law enforcement can identify you via VoiceGrid Nation created by a company called SpeechPro in the United States, but which operates as a “Speech Technology Center” in Russia... 

This image shows how VoiceGrid works and here’s some other info gleaned via their documentation. Voice matching technology can “automatically separate the voices within a two-person dialog and send each voice individually for matching” and is being used as “part of a comprehensive plan to best leverage existing and new audio data.” Even without considering the NSA surveillance via intercepting calls, the whitepaper gives numerous examples of passive sources for voice recognition data that has “already been collected.” These include voicemail, recordings made while speaking to commercial service providers such as banks, cell phone companies, and cable TV companies, as well as 911 calls, suspect interviews and court recordings.

The company’s technology uses three methods for voice matching and an algorithm that automatically compares “voice models against voice recording obtained from different sources such as cell phones, land lines, covert recordings and recorded investigative interviews.” When combined, there is a 90% voice match to identification accuracy within 15 seconds. However, according to VoiceGrid’s “key figures,” it only takes:

· 3 seconds is the minimum required speech pattern for analysis.

· In 5 seconds, it can search/match in 10,000 voice samples.

· 10 seconds is the average time for feature extraction.

· Executes up to 100 simultaneous searches.

· Accommodates up to 1,000 active users.

· Stores up to 2,000,000 samples.

(more)

Your Cellular DNA - the Electronic Snitch Gene

How your cell phone evolved into a personal panopticon...
A recent article in the London Review of Books revealed that a number of private companies now sell off-the-shelf data-mining solutions to government spies interested in analyzing mobile-phone calling records and real-time location information. These companies include ThorpeGlen, VASTech, Kommlabs, and Aqsacom--all of which sell "passive probing" data-mining services to governments around the world.

...while it may be impossible for the NSA to legally obtain large-scale, real-time customer location information from Verizon, the spooks at Fort Meade can simply go to the company that owns and operates the wireless towers that Verizon uses for its network and get accurate information on anyone using those towers--or go to other entities connecting the wireless network to the landline network. The wiretapping laws, at least in this situation, simply don't apply. (more) (webinar pdf)

FBI Releases Bulger Wiretaps

Investigators have released audio recordings of one of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" fugitives, hoping people will recognize James "Whitey" Bulger by his unique voice. ...Robert and Arthur smile.

Mexico expands electronic surveillance

Mexico is widening its capacity for electronic surveillance, using funds from Washington to expand its ability to tap telephone calls and e-mail. The expansion comes as new President Felipe Calderon pushes to amend the Mexican Constitution to allow phone taps without a judge's approval in some cases... The new system provides extensive data storage capacity and will allow voice identification of callers... (more)

Mission Creeps

Spy Technology Shifts Its Aim...

Scotland - Spy technology is to be used to catch out Edinburgh benefit cheats by listening in on telephone conversations.

Voice risk analysis software will be used by council workers to detect changes in callers' voices to give an indication of levels of stress.

Callers' normal voices will be recorded at the beginning of calls and compared with how they sound after they are asked to supply evidence to support their claims.

A similar scheme in Harrow, north London, caught out 173 benefit cheats between May and July this year, saving around £110,000.

Lie detecting experts said the technology - which is widely used in the insurance industry - was not entirely reliable. But Councillor Gordon Mackenzie, the city's finance leader, said it would act as a deterrent to would-be cheats. (more)

Next step... councillors calling home to ask spouses a few questions?

Wiretapping for Dollars!

Companies like Google scan their e-mail users’ in-boxes to deliver ads related to those messages. Will people be as willing to let a company listen in on their phone conversations to do the same?

Pudding Media, a start-up based in San Jose, Calif., is introducing an Internet phone service today that will be supported by advertising related to what people are talking about in their calls. The Web-based phone service is similar to Skype’s online service — consumers plug a headset and a microphone into their computers, dial any phone number and chat away. But unlike Internet phone services that charge by the length of the calls, Pudding Media offers calling without any toll charges.

The trade-off is that Pudding Media is eavesdropping on phone calls in order to display ads on the screen that are related to the conversation. Voice recognition software monitors the calls, selects ads based on what it hears and pushes the ads to the subscriber’s computer screen while he or she is still talking. (more)

Think about this...
• NSA level technology is now a free advertising gimmick.
• Your secrets are more vulnerably now than at any other time in history.
• The cost per-conversation-eavesdropped-on is at its lowest.
• The likelihood that your business will be wiretapped is at its highest.

Today's Wall Street Journal discusses government's obligation to protect its assets, "proactive electronic surveillance operations are essential." Businesses must also protect their assets.

Solution...
• Proactive Counter-surveillance Inspections (PCI).
Top corporate security programs already include PCI as an essential element. Other businesses (and government agencies) are adding it at a record pace.
Need to know more?
Check here.

The Science of Wiretapping (NPR)

On August 5, 2007, President Bush signed the Protect America Act of 2007 into law. The law, an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA), extends the government's authority to wiretap without a warrant. In light of the new law, Science Friday (Ira Flatow) consulted wiretap experts Matt Blaze, a technologist and professor of computer and information science at University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia and Susan Landau, Distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems Laboratories about the science of wiretapping.
Matt Blaze explains old-style wiretapping
Susan Landau explains where NSA tapping might take place
(more)

Uncle Sam Wants You...r Hearing Aid

Audio Exploitation
Solicitation Number: Reference-Number-BAA-07-05-IFKA
Posted Date: Jul 11, 2007
Classification Code: A -- Research & Development

"The scope of this effort covers a broad range of audio and speech processing technologies not limited to: speaker identification, language/ dialect identification, obtaining the gist of a conversation by recognition of words and phrases, uncooperative speaker audio language translation, whispered speech detection, audio transmission segmentation in continuous speech, background noise identification, channel effect mitigation, usable speech determination, interference (noise and competing talkers) reduction, voice stress analysis, speaker verification, coding to preserve the characteristics of the talker and channel, watermarking, and correlation." (more)

"I ain't got to show you any stinkin'..."

Mexico is expanding its ability to tap telephone calls and e-mail using money from the U.S. government, a move that underlines how the country's conservative government is increasingly willing to cooperate with United States on law enforcement.

The expansion comes as President Felipe Calderón is pushing to amend Mexico's constitution to allow officials to tap phones without a judge's approval in some cases.

Mexican authorities for years have been able to wiretap most telephone conversations and tap into e-mail, but the new $3 million Communications Intercept System being installed by Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency would expand its reach.

The system would allow authorities to track cellphone users as they travel and allow authorities to identify callers by voice, according to the contract specifications.

The system, scheduled to begin operation within the next month, was paid for by the U.S. State Department and sold by Verint Systems Inc., a politically connected company based in Melville, N.Y., that specializes in electronic surveillance.

Documents describing the upgrade suggest that the U.S. government could have access to information derived from the surveillance. Officials of both governments declined to comment on that possibility. (more)