This area of ethics should be considered seriously, but in this specific instance these consumer-level headsets tell you very little about anything. I'm constantly frustrated by the amount of coverage these get when, if you've ever studied any kind of neuroscience, you realise quite how vague the data is, and how much over-interpretation goes on in the advertising for these products.

It's a shame this book by my MSc dissertation supervisor isn't coming out until next June, because I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of stuff in there about this kind of neurobollocks: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/479845/neurobollocks-by-devl...

Huh, interesting. The company has amassed 50k hours of training data - that’s a very large dataset.

A side-project of mine recently has been building out this stack:

- Recording audio in proximity to me, and transcribing it

- Grabbing EEG data from cheap sensors on my own head

- Mapping it against the transcription

With a view to eventually train transformer models which might reliably understand, from EEG signals, what words I am thinking. The existing studies on this method don’t seem to show any drop off in efficacy at mind-reading (lol) as the dataset gets larger.

(If anyone wants to invest some seed money so I can justify spending more time strapping things to my head, do hit me up.)

Crucially, the Muse headband the article talks about doesn’t have a microphone. This seems (slightly!) better for user privacy, but it seems like it would hamper training somewhat, depending on your aims.

A less privacy-respecting company in this space with a popular wellness device could do some pretty dark stuff - it doesn’t really bear thinking about. A sleep tracker app with companion EEG sensor device, for example, could reasonably request microphone access without most users batting an eye.

I thought the level of resolution of these things is comparable to .. a few tsunami warning buoys in an ocean. It's not going to be logging anyones inner monolouge to a text file anytime soon. and also there is a real normalisation challenge, as the signals vary so much form one perosn to the next.

>But although EEG might not read people’s thoughts, “it would be equally misleading to suggest that it cannot reveal meaningful information about their cognitive states,” says Pietro Aricò, professor of bioengineering at the Sapienza University of Rome. And as consumer EEG devices begin to incorporate AI and are able to conduct increasingly sophisticated analyses, data collected on the outer surface of the brain could be enough to decode intimate features of our mental lives, including our thoughts, emotions, and personality, says Rafael Yuste, co-founder of the Neurorights Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting people’s brain data rights.

I wonder what these features are.

Blame the lawyers who wrote infinitely extensive “complete and comprehensive” permission agreements for the end user. Then blame the unethical ceos and shareholder-driven companies for exploiting such permissions.

Now we are in a situation that anyone can do anything with any data. And this was not what we were thinking. There needs to be a legal reset.

A new judicial ruling that forbids such permissions as its terms of service. That calls such permissions exploitation. That labels them as a force of evil (like the patents meant to favor edison’s movie cartels) and invalidates all powers they hold. And a judicial ruling that unilaterally limits all prior TOS agreements to be for just specific existing uses. And all future TOS’s to be opt-in, versus being forced to accept or withhold service.

If I subscribe to Google, and Google changes its TOS, why the hell should I accept a new TOS just to get access to my data? Big large govt agencies negotiate TOS’s and hold the companies to those outdated TOS’s so the companies understand well that they cant just unilaterally change it and must maintain older processes that respect legacy TOS’s.

"On the Feasibility of Side-Channel Attacks with Brain-Computer Interfaces" (Martinovic et al. 2012)

https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurit...

It seeems like every new appliance, tool, fixture or almost anything has become a device to gather data. This will change how we divide society into the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'. When AI and robotics displace most people from gainful employment, the only thing left we will have to trade for money is ourselves, our thoughts and our bodies.

The only way to stop this debasement of humanity is to destroy the tools that store this data. Time for everyone to start carrying portable emp devices and performing 'random acts of privacy preservation'.

The real title of the article is : "The scramble for your brain data"

Clean url: https://www.science.org/content/article/wearable-device-make...

I finally got around to firing up the Neurosity Crown I bought some years ago to experiment with BCI. Lights are on, but nobody is home; it knows the position of my head, but no actual EEG data is coming into the system.

Multiple attempts to contact any kind of support have gone unanswered, and according to Reddit the founders appear to have quietly disappeared, which pisses me off more than a little bit. This thing was not cheap.

Have to be careful with this. I am interested (have not started) in using brain waves to track epilepsy episodes and hopefully none of this makes tracking/capture difficult for consumers. Granted most of the good devices require implant so some level of permission is implied but the scope may be assumed. Still shutting down in the early stages may seem convenient but it could be limiting too.

If the start of an episode can be tracked (sub-second) perhaps there are some counter measures that can be taken to disrupt/subdue the electrical storm that sustains the episode. That detection pattern is something that is unique to the patient so there is custom learning involved. The hope is with enough samples we may be able to detect some hidden 'core' pattern - similar to warnings for earth quakes - and mitigate the episode or use that to go into a heightened sensitivity mode to watch out for the more custom signal.

Seems like other places need a European-style GDPR set of laws.

Companies should only be allowed to use people's data for a specific purpose that the customer has explicitly given consent to. No hidden terms in EULs and no using data for any purpose than what they have permission to do.

Every day my urge to just disconnect from modern society becomes stronger, but alas it is impossible to live outside of it when you have a family.

When I saw it was called "Muse headband", I immediately thought it was a Meta thing. Surely, it's just a matter of time until Meta knocks on their door. Especially if they're getting into the AI category with their supposed 'wellness devices'.

That title is one hell of an understatement.

not to worry, privacy was just a primitive concept, wrapped up in other ridiculous notions like personal autonomy and agency, along with silly ideas like rights and responsibilities, and soon that whole way of thinking can be edited in order to release your true potential as a happy meat bot

Somehow, our "modern" world is making the Amish look wiser and wiser every year.

Quit your job, apply at DHL, Flink or as Über-Driver and you will never have problems falling asleep again. Also working as a storeman, commuting by bus and tram will surely guarantee an early bed time. No expensive gyms needed, just go by bike to your office, the entire year. Also, ask your employer if you could help out in production or warehouse. Problem solved.

Great, now I need to worry about my brain having libre bootloader, TEMPEST shielding, latest Intel Management Engine update... did I miss anything?

Lol are we at the bottom of the slippery slope now? What a headline.

this stuff is already super advanced bbs stream of direct experience clock your ass to ai type shit

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