Cirque du Soleil Cellphone Hijack

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myopinion

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#151657 1-Sep-2014 12:42

A friend at work went to cirque du soleil over the weekend in Auckland. The show was just about to start and he was sending text. Half way through he got a message pop up on his phone (throwing him out of the SMS screen) saying to "please turn off your radio device". It didn't appear to be a text message but some sort of alert. It appears that the message was broadcast by the organisers of the show. The cirque du soleil website clearly states that you get one warning if you use your cellphone during the show, then you get ejected. Seems like the organisers of cirque du soleil really really dislike people using their mobile devices during the shows.

But really is this legal? What technology would this be? It was an iPhone 5, could this be iBeacon?

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#1119544 1-Sep-2014 12:50

Wonder how they do it. Could be iBeacon - can't imagine how else they would get a message onto a phone they know nothing else about.

myopinion

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#1119546 1-Sep-2014 12:52

I first thought perhaps he had given them his number when booking the show but he hadn't. So they knew nothing about his phone as you say.

Glassboy

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#1119560 1-Sep-2014 13:07

myopinion: A friend at work went to cirque du soleil over the weekend in Auckland. The show was just about to start and he was sending text. Half way through he got a message pop up on his phone (throwing him out of the SMS screen) saying to "please turn off your radio device". It didn't appear to be a text message but some sort of alert. It appears that the message was broadcast by the organisers of the show. The cirque du soleil website clearly states that you get one warning if you use your cellphone during the show, then you get ejected. Seems like the organisers of cirque du soleil really really dislike people using their mobile devices during the shows.

But really is this legal? What technology would this be? It was an iPhone 5, could this be iBeacon?

Are you asking if the message is considered an unsolicited message under the UEMA 2007 or whether we have some right of access to the radio spectrum?

My reading of the act and understanding of what you have said is that it wouldn't match the conditions of part 6a of the UEMA.

I don't know of any Act or Regulation that guarantees you access to radio spectrum. Both cell and mobile phone aren't good terms to quickly search across legislation either.

jnimmo

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#1119562 1-Sep-2014 13:09

If they had the Cirque du Soleil app on their phone, would have been iBeacon
Apps are able to register iBeacon identifiers to look out for; if Cirque turned on an iBeacon then the app would do whatever action had been programmed into it (i.e. display that message)

Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of IEEE spec designed for use on aeroplanes etc to get people to turn off their devices - but never heard about it being implemented

Edit: Legality, as long as they aren't using a frequency jammer or hacking your phone (which they weren't) then perfectly legal

myopinion

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#1119563 1-Sep-2014 13:11

Initially I was thinking it was some sort of cellphone blocking/hijacking but the more I think about it the more I think about it, it was probably iAd/iBeacon. This is used a bit in the US but not NZ yet? It can be turned off in the settings section on the iPhone.

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#1119574 1-Sep-2014 13:20

A few years ago the Dutch theatre group Vis à Vis used the tried and true method of having a stooge in the audience let a planted phone ring. The subsequent confiscation and smashing to bits had everyone switching sound off.