Ad blocking apps on cellphones and tablets may have gone mainstream this year, but it turns out advertisers have found a new way to target you with specific ads. According to a story in the Atlantic, companies have figured out how to track what you’re watching—and what you might be interested in purchasing—based off inaudible sounds sent from your TV to your phone.
Called “audio beacons,” these sounds emit when you visit certain sites or watch certain TV commercials, and if you have devices around that can also be activated by audio beacons, advertisers will assume that device is owned by you as well.
SilverPush is a leading provider of these audio beacons, and it says the only way this will work is if users of devices agree to SilverPush-enabled apps using their device microphones. But what’s unclear is if audio beacons can be activated from apps like Instagram, or Snapchat, that most users don’t think twice about allowing access to their microphones.
The FTC is looking into these kind of technologies. For more on the surveillance applications of this technology, go to Atlantic.