Google developing eavesdropping software
"The idea is to use the existing PC microphone to listen to whatever is heard in the background, be it music, your phone going off or the TV turned down. The PC then identifies it, using fingerprinting, and then shows you relevant content, whether that's adverts or search results, or a chat room on the subject."
This has such a potential for abuse. I wonder what would happen if the NSA announced it wanted to do something similar. What happened to "don't be evil"?
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17354&ch=infotech
- Y! MyWeb
Is the whole point of doing
Is the whole point of doing this to allow people to use their search engine by speaking?
I don't understand why it'd look for background noises though..that seems like a waste.
Didn't they already do this? I keep remembering where you could call a telephone number a few years back and google search would show you results applicable to what you said.
Could work for music / films
If Google figures out the music or film on in the background and loads a results page, stuffed with adwords, for that artist / film it could grab some impulse clicks / purchases.
Spyware, No really!
I'm not sure that they are going to limit this to their search product. I think it will attach itself to an application that will be loaded and then display ads to the desktop. Imagine an annoying mime that follows you everywhere and holds up an advertisement based on the conversations you are having or the media you are enjoying. Personally I would punch the mime.
Punch the mime? Brilliant!
What a CTR that would give! Remember those "punch the monkey" banners?
Yikes!
When I first got a laptop with a built-in microphone, I picked up the habit of making sure the mic was properly muted every few days. It seems now that that paranoia was not unfounded.
Er
we must have discussed this before?
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060609-084319
Its designed basically to serve ads, oops, serve the user, and was the subject of a lot of headlines about 3 months ago - I think this is a simple case of silly season rehash...
Crackers took control of
Crackers took control of webcams years ago. If there was value in the audio stream, they'd get that, too.
Facade is gone
The thin veneer of PR they used to cover their "Don't be evil" motto has finally been sheered off, by GOOG execs in a marketting statement, none the less.
Look! This is a *HUGE* friggin step towards the Panopticon (global, walleless prison of slaves who think they are free; the proverbial hamster in the spinning wheel).
The day this is implemented, I am personally taking off from work, buying a plane ticket, and *hungerfasting* at GOOG headquarters, or the nearest free speech zone there.
I don't care if they never implement this thing, the very insinuous it is possibly going to be implemented is far more disasterous than saying you're going to start cloning humans and mining them for body parts. It's one thing to be photographed thousands of times as I drive to work ... it's another thing to have absolutely no idea who is listening to ambient noise in my room, how long it's going to be saved, and how easily indexable it is.
Put another way, if Winston Smith's televisions had ambient sound tracking, he would have been caught talking in his sleep (as he did several times) and wouldn't have been given a chance to learn that 2+2 = 5.
But Orwell
was an optimist!
Track me not
I am new to computers and it scares me that someone has the ability to track the web sites I visit. It's none of anybodys business what I choose to do on MY PERSONEL COMPUTER!!!!
Enter the add-on, Track me not. I read the above article and right away I downloaded FireFox Mozilla. Then I downloaded Track me not to my new web browser.
Now I feel safer than I ever have on the web.
This is the best website ever.
stevanbryant1942@comcast.net
encoded email test
hopeseekr@xmule.ws
Source: