Re: Nothing new...
"Not possible to check content but possible to detect frequency and volume. So it should be fairly easy to check if it's sending all the time or just when receiving a command"
I'm a bit late with this but..
On a decent ADSL connection, how long would it take to upload 5 minutes of audio recorded at say 128k? What if it's at 96K - still decent enough for conversations to be clear.
How much background traffic does the device do? Does it 'poll for updates' every hour, and how much data is sent?
What law is there that prevents the makers from having it NOT give any lights when it is working, and what prevents them from writing a bit of code that makes the device upload random (or not) junk when idle? If I wanted to test if it was uploading everything or not, I'd have a traffic monitor on it and see how much it uploads when there are conversations (not using the trigger word) vs when there aren't conversations in the room. If there's virtually no traffic in both instances I think it's safe (until LEO orders a change, or until a certain other trigger is reached). If there's a constant low level of traffic then I'd assume that it's sending bits of the conversations during the day at quiet times, or it's sending junk to fool anyone watching for traffic spikes. If I was writing something I knew could cause trouble, I'd find a way to smooth over the bumps in the data. And of course when it is communicating with base in response to a command, I'd send every bit of extra data I could get away with at the time :)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
