this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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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

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 11 months ago (2 children)

They're like "we should address the fact that this product sounds exactly like a bleak dystopian future"

[–] residentmarchant 6 points 11 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 3 points 11 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 42 points 11 months ago (5 children)

American ISPs have no alternatives. Switching to competition usually requires moving a few states away uness you want 2000s DSL for $80 a month.

[–] TORFdot0 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

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

[–] Fredselfish 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

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] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

??? They only offer static ips on business as far as I’m aware and they don’t care what router you use.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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] 1 points 11 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] 1 points 11 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.

[–] RaoulDook 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

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

[–] DuckOverload 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

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

[–] TORFdot0 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Nice, thanks for the link 👌

[–] TORFdot0 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Don't all posts have a crosspost button?

[–] TORFdot0 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not on my app (Voyager for iOS)

[–] Feathercrown 1 points 11 months ago
[–] Nobody 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] TORFdot0 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] Gamoc 1 points 11 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 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Suspicious that this article was written by Joseph Cox.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 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] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

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

[–] egeres 2 points 11 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

a marketing technique fit for the future

I hate this so much.