Silverpush is a
Singapore based marketing technology provider.
The company was founded in September 2012, by Hitesh Chawla. After starting push notification advertisement in 2013, it launched India's first DSP platform in 2014. The company is backed by IDG Ventures, Palaash Ventures, Fabrice Grinda, K.Ganesh, 500 Startups, M&S Partners and Freak Out Inc,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
.
Silverpush's in-video context detection platform uses
artificial intelligence and computer vision to accurately identify in-video contexts, including logos, faces, objects, actions, and scenes, to enable contextual video ad placements in line with content users are actively engaging with. And its brand safety platform uses in-video context detection to contextually filter out harmful and irrelevant content. Offering brands, a suitable video environment, surpassing traditional measures like keywords blacklist, whitelisted channels and more.
Products
* In April 2019, Silverpush introduced Parallels, an ad sync technology that syncs ads with physical events in real-time.
* In November 2019, SilverPush launched Mirrors, an artificial intelligence-driven technology that aims to deliver more relevant in-video ads by way of analysing what appears in the content. Mirrors does this using a context detection technology on videos being viewed online.
* In May 2020, Silverpush launched Mirrors Safe, an AI-powered brand suitability platform.
Technology
* Filed for 10+ patents, for proprietary technology products.
* Real-time ad sync across all digital channels.
* Near real-time detection – 1 sec detection time.
* Innovative video fingerprint matching technology to detect TV ads in real-time.
* 95%+ accuracy in ad detection.
Funding
In April 2014, Geektime reported that SilverPush had raised $1.5 million in funding to increase global reach.
In February 2019, SilverPush raised $5 million in
Series B from FreakOut Holdings.
Privacy implications
The use of SilverPush to track users across multiple devices has
privacy
Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively.
The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...
implications and allows for more detailed tracking of users. Data can be collected from multiple devices used by a single user and correlated to form a more accurate picture of the person being tracked.
In July 2014,
TechCrunch reported that SilverPush was using "ultrasonic inaudible sounds" called "audio beacons" along with
cookies to reliably track users across multiple devices and that devices with an app containing the SilverPush SDK are constantly listening for audio beacons.
In April 2015, SilverPush claimed 67 apps were using its code.
In October 2015, the
Center for Democracy and Technology
Centre for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation that advocates for digital rights and freedom of expression. CDT seeks to promote legislation that enables individuals to use the internet for pur ...
submitted comments to the
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...
(FTC) regarding SilverPush's cross-device tracking technology.
In March 2016, the FTC issued warning letters to 12 app developers using SilverPush code in their apps.
The FTC warned these developers that they may be violating the
FTC Act if they state or imply that their apps are not tracking television viewing habits when they in fact are. Shortly after the FTC warning, SilverPush made an official statement that they are ending the Unique Audio Beacon service.
However, as of 21 March 2016, SilverPush is still advertising Unique Audio Beacon on their website.
In November 2016, researchers from
UCL,
UCSB and
PoliMI demonstrated the security and privacy implications of the ultrasound cross-device tracking (uXDT) technology used by SilverPush. The most notable of their attacks uses uXDT-enabled applications to deanonymize
Tor
Tor, TOR or ToR may refer to:
Places
* Tor, Pallars, a village in Spain
* Tor, former name of Sloviansk, Ukraine, a city
* Mount Tor, Tasmania, Australia, an extinct volcano
* Tor Bay, Devon, England
* Tor River, Western New Guinea, Indonesia
Sc ...
users.
In May 2017 SilverPush technology was again the subject of research: "A team of researchers from the
Brunswick Technical University in Germany discovered
34Android apps that employ ultrasonic tracking beacons to track users and their nearby environment. Their research paper focused on the technology of ultrasound
cross-device tracking (uXDT)."
See also
*
Air gap (networking)
*
BadBIOS
BadBIOS is alleged malware described by network security researcher Dragos Ruiu in October 2013 with the ability to communicate between instances of itself across air gaps using ultrasonic communication between a computer's speakers and microphone ...
*
Near sound data transfer Near Sound Data Transfer (NSDT) is a sound-based mobile transaction technology developed and patented by Tagattitude since 2005. NSDT uses a one time password sent through the audio channel of a mobile device to create an electronic signature enabli ...
*
SlickLogin
*
Cross-device tracking
References
{{Reflist
External links
CDT letter to FTCFTC warning letterSilverPush wikiSilverPushUnmasked on GitHubDemo:Tor deanonymization using uXDT
Mobile applications
Internet privacy