And home devices such as Amazon’s Echo can record everyday conversations.
Multiple “spyware” apps can record phone calls. Companies use “bossware” to listen to their employees when they’re near their computers.
WHITE NOISE MACHINE TO PREVENT EAVESDROPPING PORTABLE
Although sound masking is used most often in office settings, portable sound-masking devices are used in dormitories by college students and travelers in hotel rooms.Big Brother is listening. Often, sound masking systems also can be used for paging and emergency notifications. They can hear talking, but they can’t understand what is being said. Other co-workers say they no longer overhear conversations in neighboring rooms.
With the system installed, Grant is no longer annoyed by a co-worker nearby who hums incessantly. Amplifiers and equalizers or other equipment are used to create and adjust the sound. The speakers are connected to a control system usually installed in an out-of-sight place, such as a closet. Sound masking systems usually consist of several speaker-like devices, often about the size of a shoe box, or a large coffee can, placed in the plenum space above a drop ceiling. So the person who may be standing on the opposite side of them, or behind them, cannot hear,” she said. “We’ve noticed that it is more difficult to decipher what patients are saying. That’s where most of the conversations and questions would take place,” said Annette Wiebeld, practice administrator at Elizabeth Wende Breast Care, 170 Sawgrass Drive in Brighton. “We have it in our main waiting area, right at check in. Using sound masking also helps medical offices comply with federal laws adopted to protect the privacy of health and medical information. Shepanski said the general public is usually unaware that sound masking is operating. This deadens that sound so it creates more of a neutral environment so your voice doesn’t carry over to the next cubicle or the next office,” Grant said. “These call centers and these environments where everybody’s talking, the sound just travels all over the place. Work areas are more often designed with an open space concept without any barriers, or sometimes only cubicle separators between desks. It allows you to have those private conversations so your voice doesn’t carry,” Grant said. “Sound that goes into the ceiling passes through and important conversations and things are overheard.
“It’s a product that’s been around for quite a while, but it’s really taking off in the last few years for a lot of reasons,” said Mike Grant, owner of Tele Data Com Inc., 90 Air Park Drive, Chili, primarily a telecommunications cabling contractor that has been selling and installing sound masking systems for a few years. And doors are sometimes hollow, which means sound also can more easily pass through. Interior walls are often not insulated to prevent sound from passing through. There often is a space above the drop ceiling that allows sound to pass from one room to another. So that floor space can easily be reconfigured when tenants change, interior walls often do not reach all the way to the next floor. Sound masking has become especially popular in recent years because of the ways office space is now designed and constructed.
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