Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/04/acoustic-firewall.html
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3 Likes
So, a smart speaker for your smart speaker?
11 Likes
I’d like it if it looked like a head-crab.
4 Likes
Or a brain slug. 
8 Likes
Does it block infrared sensors as well?
Don’t have a smart speaker - don’t want a smart speaker. But if I’m forced to buy products due to it being the only option in the future; I’m thinking that an ice pick would be cheaper than this.
5 Likes
Nifty fix for a problem in a product I do not need or want.
2 Likes
A friend did a network teardown of his google home and found that it wasn’t using the network at all until the command phrase was issued. I don’t pretend that it’s not a vulnerability, but that vulnerability doesn’t mean it’s transmitting everything you say to the mothership.
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I see it as more of a prophylactic than parasite.
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Amazon/Google/Apple are gonna be pissed about all that white noise filling up their storage arrays. 
2 Likes
DMCA lawsuit in 3…2…
Seriously, if I’m stuck with one of these things in the near future, I’ll be looking in to it.
1 Like
I doubt enough of these parasites will sell to matter to the larger companies.
I wonder if the speaker could sample the white noise and then invert it to cancel the white noise and get back to spying as usual.
3 Likes
DMCA? As far as I can tell, the device is completely external to the speaker. Why would DMCA come into play?
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I’m pretty sure more tenuous “subversion of use” claims have been made. After all, they don’t have to be right, they just have financially defeat their target.
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If it looked like…
…that’d be alright too.
2 Likes
So you want a method to stop your smart speaker unintentionally activating until you actually want it to.
Switch it off?
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