Hidden 'BopSpotter' Microphone Is Constantly Surveilling San Francisco For Good (404media.co) 27
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Somewhere over the streets of San Francisco's Mission, a microphone sits surveilling ... for banger songs. Bop Spotter is a project by technologist Riley Walz in which he has hidden an Android phone in a box on a pole, rigged it to be solar powered, and has set it to record audio and periodically sends it to Shazam's API to determine which songs people are playing in public. Walz describes it as ShotSpotter, but for music. "This is culture surveillance. No one notices, no one consents. But it's not about catching criminals," Walz's website reads. "It's about catching vibes. A constant feed of what's popping off in real-time."
ShotSpotter, of course, is the microphone-based, "gunshot detection" surveillance company that cities around the country have spent millions of dollars on. ShotSpotter is often inaccurate, and sometimes detects things like fireworks or a car backfiring as gunshots. Chicago, one of ShotSpotter's biggest clients, is finally allowing its contract with the company to end. Bop Spotter, on the other hand, is designed to figure out what cool music people are blasting from their cars or as they walk down the street. "I am a chronic Shazam-er. Most songs I listen to come from first hearing them at a party, store, or on the street," Walz told 404 Media. "Years ago I had the thought that it'd be cool to Shazam 24/7 from a fixed location, and I recently learned about ShotSpotter, and thought it'd be amusing to do what they do with music instead of gunshots. Was a great weekend project."
Walz said that the phone itself is rigged to a solar panel, and that it records audio in 10-minute blocks while in airplane mode. "Then it connects to WiFi to send the file to my server, which then split it into 20-second chunks that get passed to Shazam's API. The device doesn't Shazam directly, that would use way too much power. Probably $100 of parts," he said. BopSpotter's website has a constant feed of songs it hears, as well as links to play the songs in Spotify or Apple Music. As I'm writing this, BopSpotter has picked up "Not Like Us" by Kendrick Lamar, "The Next Episode" by Dr. Dre, and "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley (a Rick Roll already?) among dozens of songs in the last few hours. The site also has a constant feed of the device's power levels. So far in three days, it has detected 380 songs. "I thought the solar panel would be annoying but it provides 4 times more power than the phone needs," Walz said. "The hardest part was scoping out which pole to actually put it up on. I had to balance finding a busy location where lots of music could be picked up, with enough sunlight, and good connection to a public wifi network."
Walz didn't say where exactly the phone is located.
ShotSpotter, of course, is the microphone-based, "gunshot detection" surveillance company that cities around the country have spent millions of dollars on. ShotSpotter is often inaccurate, and sometimes detects things like fireworks or a car backfiring as gunshots. Chicago, one of ShotSpotter's biggest clients, is finally allowing its contract with the company to end. Bop Spotter, on the other hand, is designed to figure out what cool music people are blasting from their cars or as they walk down the street. "I am a chronic Shazam-er. Most songs I listen to come from first hearing them at a party, store, or on the street," Walz told 404 Media. "Years ago I had the thought that it'd be cool to Shazam 24/7 from a fixed location, and I recently learned about ShotSpotter, and thought it'd be amusing to do what they do with music instead of gunshots. Was a great weekend project."
Walz said that the phone itself is rigged to a solar panel, and that it records audio in 10-minute blocks while in airplane mode. "Then it connects to WiFi to send the file to my server, which then split it into 20-second chunks that get passed to Shazam's API. The device doesn't Shazam directly, that would use way too much power. Probably $100 of parts," he said. BopSpotter's website has a constant feed of songs it hears, as well as links to play the songs in Spotify or Apple Music. As I'm writing this, BopSpotter has picked up "Not Like Us" by Kendrick Lamar, "The Next Episode" by Dr. Dre, and "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley (a Rick Roll already?) among dozens of songs in the last few hours. The site also has a constant feed of the device's power levels. So far in three days, it has detected 380 songs. "I thought the solar panel would be annoying but it provides 4 times more power than the phone needs," Walz said. "The hardest part was scoping out which pole to actually put it up on. I had to balance finding a busy location where lots of music could be picked up, with enough sunlight, and good connection to a public wifi network."
Walz didn't say where exactly the phone is located.
Indeed no-one consents (Score:2)
Nobody is ever asked whether they consent to be put under surveillance anymore. So nothing new there.
But in this particular instance, he set up his gear in a public space where nobody has any expectation of privacy. So it's fair enough. Still, if the dude was recording people's conversations instead of random music soundbites, although legal, it would be super creepy.
Then again, there isn't much in the surveillance economy that isn't creepy as hell...
Re: (Score:2)
Should the ATM across the street be allowed to have a camera which is able to see us, over here on this side of the street? And what about that residence which has a Ring camera on its door? It's seeing us from way over there!
Shit, it gets even worse. I thought this was a deaf pile of newspapers here next to us, but I just found a guy sleeping underneath it. Do you think he heard us?
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California is a two-party consent state. Technically, even if you're not keeping the recording, you could be violating the rights of anyone that has a conversation in earshot of the device.
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Privacy is not a boolean. Even in public spaces I expect a certain level of privacy. I expect that only the people within sight / earshot can see and hear me, and only then. I expect to notice when someone is taking a picture of me.
But then, the US is the only country in the world where a judge tells you what you expect.
How long until (Score:3)
The RIAA sees this, next thing you know there are cameras on every block grabbing images for facial recognition if the mics catch you in an 'unauthorized public performance' they can sue you for.
Re: (Score:2)
Nit-picky, but that'd be ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and their ilk, not the RIAA.
You left of the ASPCA. Those bastards are ruthless.
So... (Score:2)
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Criminals? (Score:1)
"It's not about catching criminals"
Arguably, if you've got people playing music loudly in public, loud enough to be picked up and identified on a utility pole over the ambient noise of the city, it's disturbing the peace - almost certainly loud enough to count as a disturbance.
It's also, in my experience, going to be a fairly "ethnic" identification. You don't have people blaring Taylor Smith or Angel Vivaldi, it's going to be hood music.
At best, this is likely to pick up on top 50 radio songs due to constr
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Didn't click the link? I'm seeing Beach Boys, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and more—as well as "hood music" as you put it.
People listen to all kinds of stuff.
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Hmm, the PRS will love this (Score:2)
Public performance of music is illegal without a license.
The PRS, who frequently phone up companies to listen over the phone if they have music audible then demand license payments, would love to have things like this in the streets.
They could tie the performances to BT/wifi MAC addresses, CCTV, all sorts.
I can see someone rubbing their hands with glee right now.
Wanker Detectors (Score:2)
Playing loud music in a shared public space should be a specific offence, or at least a recordable misdemeanor. Both car stereos and loud music played from mobile phones.
Bad music detector (Score:2)
The people who blast their music in public tend to have the worst taste in music.
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yes, i myself am one of the rare few who listen to awesome music loudly in public.
music so dope that most people are too dumb to recognize how great it is.
ShotSpotter (Score:2)
So what he's saying (Score:2)
Is people are playing their music loud enough for everyone around them to hear it, whether they want to hear it or not.
I guess these folks wouldn't have a problem if I blasted Gwar while walking down the street.