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Ask HN: Ever heard audio injection on United airlines wifi?
August 19, 2016 – SFO to ORD – my wife and I connect to the United Wifi network. Panasonic is the operator of the service.
Before actually paying for the service, I launch Google Play Music and begin playing a cached track. (It was clear that my iPad had no access to the open internet at this time, but it was on the LAN.) As I begin playing the track, I hear a second audio track playing underneath the music. It's a 15-second audio ad, on repeat, for the Chase United Explorer credit card and its 30,000 bonus mile offer.
When I flip up the iOS system tray (by dragging a finder from the bottom of the screen up), I see that the track playing is flashing intermittently between the correct metadata for my Google Play Music track, and a United URL containing a path to some audio file.
This turned out to be repeatable for the entire flight. Using the headphone remote to pause and unpause, the ad would initiate with each pause/unpause press.
Wondering if anyone else has seen this.
- LP4TOL 10y agoIts been done before on alot of services especially on the gaming software steam with in game ads there is a way to block this in the future but it would vary with each service
- shostack 10y agoCan you elaborate on the Steam situation? Are there any sources on it? Would love to know more.