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Activate This ‘Bracelet of Silence,’ and Alexa Can’t Eavesdrop
New York Post ^ | Feb. 14, 2020 | Kashmir Hill

Posted on 02/19/2020 9:37:23 AM PST by nickcarraway

Microphones and cameras lurk everywhere. You may want to slip on some privacy armor.

Last year, Ben Zhao decided to buy an Alexa-enabled Echo speaker for his Chicago home. Mr. Zhao just wanted a digital assistant to play music, but his wife, Heather Zheng, was not enthused. “She freaked out,” he said.

Ms. Zheng characterized her reaction differently. First she objected to having the device in their house, she said. Then, when Mr. Zhao put the Echo in a work space they shared, she made her position perfectly clear:“I said, ‘I don’t want that in the office. Please unplug it. I know the microphone is constantly on.’”

Mr. Zhao and Ms. Zheng are computer science professors at the University of Chicago, and they decided to channel their disagreement into something productive. With the help of an assistant professor, Pedro Lopes, they designed a piece of digital armor: a “bracelet of silence” that will jam the Echo or any other microphones in the vicinity from listening in on the wearer’s conversations.

The bracelet is like an anti-smartwatch, both in its cyberpunk aesthetic and in its purpose of defeating technology. A large, somewhat ungainly white cuff with spiky transducers, the bracelet has 24 speakers that emit ultrasonic signals when the wearer turns it on. The sound is imperceptible to most ears, with the possible exception of young people and dogs, but nearby microphones will detect the high-frequency sound instead of other noises.

“It’s so easy to record these days,” Mr. Lopes said. “This is a useful defense. When you have something private to say, you can activate it in real time. When they play back the recording, the sound is going to be gone.”

During a phone interview, Mr. Lopes turned on the bracelet, resulting in static-like white noise

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Conspiracy; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: alexa; security; surveillance
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Will it help you defeat CHAOS?




Also is white noise racist?

1 posted on 02/19/2020 9:37:23 AM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Just don’t pay for spy devices.


2 posted on 02/19/2020 9:40:48 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: nickcarraway

Just curious - does everyone here have subscriptions to the NYT and WSJ? Because I do like to “read the link” but after the few freebies I’m blocked by the paywall.

So do you guys who post them all the time actually subscribe to those rags?


3 posted on 02/19/2020 9:45:48 AM PST by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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To: nickcarraway

ah, the portable cone of silence...

and it is KAOS.

but thanks for the fond memories. one of the only two things mel brooks did that i liked... i bet there was more buck henry influence than brooks.


4 posted on 02/19/2020 9:47:44 AM PST by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world)
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To: bigbob

Clean out your cookies.................


5 posted on 02/19/2020 9:47:53 AM PST by Red Badger (CWII is coming. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: bigbob
...The sound is imperceptible to most ears, with the possible exception of young people and dogs,...

Gee....what could go wrong???

6 posted on 02/19/2020 9:48:12 AM PST by Jane Long (Praise God, from whom ALL blessings flow.cuase)
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To: teeman8r

Oops, you are right, how could I be so dumb.


7 posted on 02/19/2020 9:49:45 AM PST by nickcarraway
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To: teeman8r
I was thinking of Buck Henry too. Not really a fan, but did you ever see the SNL sketch he did with Laraine Newman and Gilda Radner? Inappropriate, but funny.

What was the other Mel Brooks one that you liked?

8 posted on 02/19/2020 9:51:18 AM PST by nickcarraway
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To: bigbob

I found a workaround. Click on the link, and then the instant it loads, hit the “stop loading” icon on your browser. If you are too late, the paywall will come up. If you do it fast enough, you get the full content uninhindered.

Sometimes you have to hit the button just before the page appears. Sometimes I get it on the first try, and sometimes I have to give it two or three tries. It helps to move the link as close to the button as possible because sometimes you have to be quick.


9 posted on 02/19/2020 9:51:28 AM PST by cuban leaf (The political war playing out in every country now: Globalists vs Nationalists)
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To: bigbob

I just tried it and it worked. :)

This will work with any site that uses this paradigm.


10 posted on 02/19/2020 9:52:50 AM PST by cuban leaf (The political war playing out in every country now: Globalists vs Nationalists)
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To: nickcarraway
"During a phone interview, Mr. Lopes turned on the bracelet, resulting in static-like white noise"

...with an deep, eerie, intermittent voice that appeared to be saying "I am Epstein... I did not kill myself..."

11 posted on 02/19/2020 9:57:52 AM PST by Hatteras
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To: teeman8r

KAOS is an evil organization bent on world domination, registered as a Delaware corporation for tax purposes.

I contend that the Daily Kos was originally suposed to be KOS pronounced Kay-oss, homonym for chaos but once the dems made them mainstream they pretended it was pronounced the nonsensical "coz".

12 posted on 02/19/2020 9:58:29 AM PST by pepsi_junkie (Often wrong, but never in doubt!)
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To: nickcarraway

In addition, all the dogs in the neighborhood will start howling, and nobody will know why.


13 posted on 02/19/2020 10:00:12 AM PST by I want the USA back (Journalists Take Bits of Reality and Slot them into the Existing Script. -Friedman.)
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To: nickcarraway

i enjoyed the producers and i should have said three... with young frankenstein being one also...

spring time for hitler and germany.
goose steps the new step in town.


14 posted on 02/19/2020 10:04:45 AM PST by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world)
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To: bigbob

” Because I do like to “read the link” “

You can be banned for expressing such.


15 posted on 02/19/2020 10:19:57 AM PST by TexasGator (Z1z)
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To: nickcarraway

How many congresscritters will carry such watches to avoid wiretaps?


16 posted on 02/19/2020 10:24:32 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Everyone knows Hillary was corrupt, lied, destroyed documents, and influenced witnesses. Rat crime.)
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To: nickcarraway

This is like the “get a VPN to protect your identity” thing.

And who owns those VPNs?

China, for instance, has been quietly buying up a whole lot of them.

It’s like the cops set up a billboard saying “go to warehouse number 18 on Stumpy Street and no one can catch you doing crimes!”

So yeah. Here’s a bracelet. It’ll protect you. You can talk freely and without risk! honest. :)


17 posted on 02/19/2020 10:29:37 AM PST by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: nickcarraway

Or you can just unplug the thing when you don’t want it to listen.


18 posted on 02/19/2020 10:57:21 AM PST by Bubba_Leroy (The Obamanation has ended!)
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To: nickcarraway

I have an idea to make the Alexa not evesdrop.

Have a separate device to which the Alexa’s microphone inputs (2 wires) are plugged. This separate device is programmed to recognize a user-chosen password. When that is heard the microphone is enabled and you use the Alexa as normal.

After a user-chosen period of time the separate device would shut off the microphone.


19 posted on 02/19/2020 11:09:39 AM PST by cymbeline
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To: nickcarraway

With all the leakers around, maybe Trump needs one in his office.


20 posted on 02/19/2020 11:10:42 AM PST by KittyKares (Drain the Swamp)
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