Listening Herald

I was incredulous, mystified and dumbfounded.

I was told that a Second Life Resident of excellent credentials said he discovered "listening devices" of mine in one area I had visited often. Further, the owner of the area said the Resident told him to delete them, and he did, so "Arth couldn't spy on him anymore". When another, more reliable contact told me he had confirmed this claim directly with the finder, I was plunged into confusion.

First, yes, I know how to make remote listening devices - they are not that hard to script - but I don't make them because they are against Second Life Community Standards:

Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums.

Second, I had been getting no reports of any activity in the area in discussion, not by e-mail nor Instant Message nor by chat. That's what remote listening scripts do: they listen to what is said and send some communication somewhere. Even if I'd inadvertantly put one somewhere (did I drag a wrong script into some thing I had built there?) I'd be getting a remote report from Second Life. Such reports are easily monitored and traced by Linden Labs.

Third, after wracking my brain, what, really, had this Resident found? I had permission from the area owner to build and leave objects there, but I had left nothing unusual in that area. I'd left a common pose ball pair (they go invisible when you type "/8 hide"). I'd built a very low prim bridge witha common script that emitted glowing "fireflies" you could change their color by command (when you type "/1 bridge yellow", the colored floating lights change to yellow) as a gift to the area owner, who had angrily destroyed a similar object, he said. But I knew those scripts had no relay command in them. Curiouser and curiouser.

Anyhow, I was told that my listening devices in that area were found and deleted without any notice to me. The area owner banned me from the area and prohibited me from building there. Then, later, some trouble occurred with his objects and landscaping going missing in the area. The owner accused me of causing this, an utter impossibility. A report was filed, and the researching Linden said they found and took more listening devices to see if they broke the rules. That's when the owner of the area told me about all this.

Fourth, how could anyone show that the scripted contents of an object that no longer exists did not contain the ability to remotely monitor chat?

Fifth, well, I'd hear from the Lindens if they were mine, and that would resolve the mystery, but it's been three weeks, and I've heard nothing. Linden Labs does follow up on Abuse Reports, too: I've filed three of them in the meantime that have already been adressed and resolved by the Linden Liaison office. And the Lindens can easily crack a script and see if it has the ability to remotely montior a conversation and see where the conversation is being sent. Unless the scripter cooperates, Residents can't crack scripts.

Suddenly, it dawned on me: no-one said they'd found "remote listening devices", they had found "listening devices". And I knew what they'd found and how they found it.

Any prim that responds to chat has "listen" built into the script: the "/8 show/hide" pose balls (like the ones I'd left on the sim), huggers ( "/hug Arth"), dialog controllers (the blue panel that shows up with options), magic devices ("Flame on!"), Valimar title makers (some you can change by chatting), and (aha!) my chat controlled, color changing bridge. These devices do listen, but they don't need or have the second ingredient necessary for a remote monitor: a portion of the script that sends data somehwere. My posers and bridge certainly had listen but no send script.

It is fairly easy to locate scripted objects. According to the SL Knowledge Base, : Click View > Beacons > Scripted Objects on your menu bar, then click View > Beacons > Render Beacons. That doesn't tell you WHAT the script does, exactly, though. For that, the easily available and very useful MystiTool and at least six other devices have a bug scanner that locates scripts that use listen. I had even recommend MystiTool to the Resident who found my listening devices. But even Mystitool does not differentiate between listening scripts that send data elsewhere and scripts that do not. Maybe there are other tools that detect remote listening scripts, but I've not found one. Someone should script one!

I'm satisfied that the mystery of the reported listening devices is explained in this irony: no one but Lindens can tell the difference between a creepy "remote monitor" and a useful chat controlled object. I need to tell this to those who are still wondering why the area owner is so mad at me. I will direct them to this blog post - those that should know can fill in the names easily.

Love, Arth

P.S.: Three Ironies:

1) Mystitool is capable of generating objects that report who is where in an allowed area. Next, they self delete. Usually. If they lag out, another's Mystitool can detect them as very suspicious invisible listeners.

2) I had been working on and finally scripted "pose balls" that do not use listen scripts. The sit scripts in my furniture seats now counter the prim rotations with an animation rotation, so I don't need the extra ball prim. Even my furniture has nothing to hide.

3) Those pose balls I left out had been given to me by the Resident who found them.

O {:-{D}