Acoustic surveillance

The constant connectivity of our mobile devices exposes us to new surveillance methods. Novel technologies build upon ultrasonic sounds to exchange information. More and more of our devices communicate via this inaudible communication channel. Ultrasonic communication enables to pair devices, exchange information but also to track users and their behaviour across several devices similar to cookies in the web.
Unfortunately, up until now there is no technology available that detects ultrasonic communication and that enables users to protect their privacy.

The first ultrasonic firewall

To overcome this gap, within the project SoniControl we research the current capabilities of ultrasonic communication and this unknown communication channel. We develop a mobile application that detects ultrasonic activity, notifies the user and blocks the information on demand. Thereby, we want to raise the awareness for this novel technology and help users to protect their privacy. All project results and the application will be made available for the public after completion of the project under a Creative Commons license; the system is therefore directly usable and expandable for everyone.

Follow-up project SoniControl 2.0