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Google to Use PC Microphones to Listen In?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the shh-yer-changing-my-ads dept.

seriv writes "The Register reports that Google plans to use PC microphones to collect statistics on a user's environment. Peter Norvig, who directs research at Google, told Technology Review that this software would start to show up in Google software 'sooner rather than later'. The software collects short sound clips and removes background noise. Google then targets its ads based on the statistics collected. With the current level of online privacy, this new level of invasion would seem to have frightening possibilities."

4 of 554 comments (clear)

  1. Millionth User by richardcpeterson · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I may not have gotten the first post (didn't even read the summary) - but I _am_ the millionth slashdot user. I decided to register last night. Thought that might be interesting to some of you.

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    Millionth user, baby
  2. Re:I call bullshit. by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    never thing companies aren't that stupid!

    cough.. ATT (NSA)

    cough, cough, verison (NSA)

    cough, cough, cough GM (remember that OnStar can spy when you're not using it)

    and god knows what Microsoft has given to keep their monopoly

  3. Re:Let me be the first to say... by fastgood · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    you'd be forced to use it to use Google software?

    With Vista going for $300 and PC hardware for half that, I'm waiting for a 1/2 price, $225 'Microsoft PC'.
    It must run Vista, and they could "just" sell it at Wal-Mart while wiping out the small whitebox industry.

    If Redmond has a bootsector patent it'll give new meaning to the increasingly frequent Windows Update:
    "Once you have installed this item it cannot be removed"

  4. Neat, but... by psykocrime · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Neat, but can it perform cunnilingus on a hardwood floor?

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    // TODO: Insert Cool Sig