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Google to Use PC Microphones to Listen In?
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."
this sounds like bullshit to me.
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That would be the literal incarnation of "spyware". :-S
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
WTF happened to "Don't Be Evil", Google?
Of course, this may be just FUD, but I am pretty certain it qualifies as unlawful data collection and breach of privacy in my jurisdiction. Try to hijack my microphone, Google, and I will sue you to kingdom come. You have been warned.
A note to self: make sure the Google toolbar is uninstalled on every family computer ASAP.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
NOBODY is stupid enough to propose such a thing. I think it’s a better guess that the tech in question is to be used to run ad-supported VOIP or similar.
I don’t know who those Faultline people are, but either they or El Reg (and now Slashdot) have been trolled. HAND
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
-r
Perhaps the Google software will conflict with the NSA microphone-tapping software so the NSA software stops working.
Will the user be notifed in big red letters.. or will this just be hidden down in the fine print like everything else?
What is next, capturing video? Or scanning file contents?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If you're worried about your privacy, then stop using Google software. Set up your /etc/hosts file to resolve their various domains and hostnames to localhost. Disconnect your microphone.
If neither Google nor the various levels of government care about your privacy, then do what you have to on your own to guarantee your personal life remains personal.
If anybody believes this story I've got some oceanside property in Nevada I'd like to sell them.
don't participate in sexual activities with your mic on or you will find yourself with nasty search results in the morning?
For once I have not read the 'effing article.
The Register is not a reliable news source. Moreover, Andrew Orlowski has a bee in his bonnet about Google and constantly writes articles attacking them with very little merit - I would be astonished if this article is not by him, but even if it isn't, their association with him completely discredits them in my eyes.
Finally Peter Norvig is the author of the seminal Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming (if you haven't read it, go and buy it right now) and is definitely not a complete idiot - I simply don't believe the story as summarised in the slashdot writeup regardless of whether it correctly reflects El Reg's article.
Case dismissed.
--- These are not words: wierd, genious, rediculous
Girl: WalnutMon, your penis is too small for me...
Me: Shh... Be quiet!
Girl: Why? Does it make you feel self conscious?
Me: No, I don't give a shit, I just don't feel like having more penis enlargement advertisements sent to me via google's sound activated advertisement scheme
Girl: I SURE NEED SOME VIBRATORS!
Me: AND WIVES FROM RUSSIA!
You take it, I don't want it...
In other words: welcome to Slashdot and congratulations on being the millionth user, but you'll get flamed just like any other noob
Firehed - Unfortunately, thanks to medical breakthroughs, common sense is not as common as it once was.
God damn kids, and their seven digit /. IDs.
Maybe not
Actually it turns on your Webcam and mic to record everything you say and do.
Privacy just went out the door.... unless you use *insert favorite OP systen here*
I vote for DOS.
He didn't. He created a bunch of sockpuppet accounts so he could reach 1000000 faster.
Flash already has the ability to do this. Thankfully, you can control whether or not a site has access to your camera and microphone (denied by default).
This guy's the limit!
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/06/08/google-resear ch-prototypes-ambient-audio-contextual-content/
Based on the gunshot noises in your environment, can I interest you one of the following: a Dirty Harry dvd or a bulletproof vest?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Yeah, I know what you mean...
Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
A million monkeys and we still don't see no Hamlet
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Seems like you already figured out the two main habits of the average slashdot user. Keep up the good work!
molmod.com - computing tips from a molecular modeling
Okay, let's see. Excepting exploits, browsers (are supposed to) run in a sandbox - they don't have access to hardware.
I wouldn't have even added "are supposed to" even in quotes, but well there's always ActiveX... but still, I'm using Firefox on a Mac so I'm not particularly worried - doubly so since I don't believe this is real to begin with.
#DeleteChrome
Thankfully Linux users are safe from this, since anything related to audio rarely ever works well. The standard sound drivers included in most distributions are so horrid that not even Google's thousands of engineers can manage to keep them from segfaulting for more than a couple minutes. I guess they could avoid using any of the fancy drivers and stick with basic ALSA or OSS, but since only one application at a time can use sound with that method, it would probably already be in use by something else...
Will Google give me something interesting if they pick up "fwap fwap fwap fwap..."?
How do we know there is not software that does this already? We've had web cams and microphones for 6-7 years now. First, what APIs exist in browsers that would allow this? Second what's the minimum software needed to do this? Lastly, could it be done without installing anything extra at all... from a webpage?
Certainly, most users are quite happy to use Google. Google offers a bunch of free but useful stuff: programs, tools, image databases, etc.
The users are happy.
The users depend on Google and are happy.
The users install the microphone link to Google.
The users are happy.
And Google controls.
Some are holding out for the highly desired 1 MB (MiB; mebibyte) user id number of 1,048,576.
Ron
Here's the article cited by The Register.
* fap, fap, fap *
I am defenseless. Use your button. Mod me down with all of your hatred.
God help us if there is a Clippy version of the ad:
It sounds like you are trying to masturbate. Would you like some lubricant?
I am defenseless. Use your button. Mod me down with all of your hatred.
Oh, and BTW: Welcome to the future.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
I go out and leave a looped soundtrack of piggies oinking?
Or machinegun fire?
Or "IhategoogleIhategoogleIhategoogle"
Or arabic speech? (will I get a visit from the secret anti-terror police?)
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
You must be new here.
Here is my submission to slash for a story in JUNE:
"Google listens to t.v. to pick ads Fri Jun 16, '06 03:25 PM Rejected"
If it's a hoax it's a long running hoax that's yet to be debunked,which is possible of course, but is it probable? Oh and thanks slashdot editors for blowing off yet another submission of mine only to pick up the same story MUCH later, sigh.
Tired of all the isms, don't exploit people as an employer, or a government, mmmmK?
I'm a statistician. And if there is one thing that's worse for a statistician than getting no data, it's getting poisoned data. Data that has been deliberately or accidently been tampered with to generate results that deviate greatly from a result you would get with normal data.
If your want to counter data miners, give them what they want: data. You certainly can't give them more than they can handle, but you can give them false data. False data is worse than no data, because instead of getting no data from you, you are invalidating all data gathered.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Yeah, why didn't Slashdot close user registrations after user 1,000? j/k :^)
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
Harcourt Fenton Mudd have you been drinking?
Well, I just did a google search for "I am Lying", but it seems to have not exploded. Oh well, it was worth a try.
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
Integrated Media Measurement, Inc. (IMMI) has a program like this for cell phones - tracking media 24/7 by recording ambient audio and comparing it to a database of stored samples.
Right now it's opt-in; potential users in selected markets are being sent direct mailings, with the company offering to pay for phone service for those willing to leave their phone (and the program recording 10 seconds of audio every 30 seconds) on regularly.
Interestingly enough, Al Acorn (Pong designer and Atari co-founder) is listed as CTO.
Every single thing I've ever installed from Google that reports back to Google is either off by default, or asks me whether I want to let it report before letting it.
I can't imagine this'd be any different. But let's panic anyway!
That should be their new slogan.
WTF happened to "Don't Be Evil", Google?
It's non free software, right? Why are you surprised? The non free extortion has always been, "Do as I say or your computer will not do what you want."
A note to self: make sure the Google toolbar is uninstalled on every family computer ASAP.
The difference between this and other spyware that does this is that Google told you up front and you can remove it later if you change your mind. Chances are that Macromedia Flash or something already has your microphone turned on. Turning it off is going to be like trying to turn off the Vista start up noise if it's not already. When you use non free software, you hand control of your computer to someone else. It's never a good idea but some companies are less trustworthy than others. Google is the least of your problems.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
What data? Each 5-second chunk is represented by a 4-byte number. Google says the transformation is irreversible.
If it's not free software, you have no way of knowing. This is true of all non free software you put on your computer.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
The user will be happy.
Google will protect you from the terrible secret of space.
Do you have stairs at your house?
Google is here to protect you.
The user will be happy at the top of the stairs.
Google will protect you from the terrible secret of space.
Please go stand by the top of the stairs.
Actually, this is one of the only real ways to do serious amounts of survelliance. In Orwell's day, a 1984 dystopia would've been impossible; the technological resources required to watch everyone at the same time would've been impossible.
Now, or at least some point in the not-too far future, it shouldn't be too difficult to keep itense survellience going in real-time through the use of distributed computing applications and this sort of webcam-microphone collection. If Google's desktop software were to REALLY become widespread, it would be very easy for them to package distributied computing software to analyze the behavior of people at the same time it kept an eye on them.
The only hurdle at this point, at least as far as I know, is to write software good enough to analyze that much content in real time. It seems as if we're quite a while away from that.
http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
The people doing these things think they are smart. What they are counting on is that people won't be able to tell them apart from more honest companies like Google, which bothered to tell you up front. A bad mouth here, a bad mouth there and tons of advert money and distribution channel extortion and all will be well, they think. It's called "screwing the pooch." Free software is going to make them feel really stupid soon enough.
People avoid damaged goods. Do you want this kind of thing running at your place of work? I don't, and that's where the transition has started. It's if non free is going to be replaced it's when you are going to get around to it yourself.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
AOL's recent posting of user search information has sensitized the public to Internet privacy issues for the near term. I think Google would be wise to be proactive and issue a press release promising that the technology will not be enabled without user consent and pointing out the very short sampling time in order to avoid suffering PR backlash from stories about the technology.
:-) :-| More seriously, I am certain that the number of programs that try to access these devices will increase over time. Does Vista address this issue?
A weaknesses in XP is the lack of management tools to control access to multimedia devices by program. Program features like the one Google is proposing make the ability to secure audio and video input devices at the OS level obviously necessary. Until such control is provided, the security minded user can unplug the microphone and the webcam when they are not in use. Not convenient, but secure. As far as I know, such security is currently unlikely to be necessary because few programs try to make such accesses -- but who knows for sure what the WGA daemon can do?
And suddenly slashdot is flooded with fleshlight ads.
having been part of /. since almost day one (hb, at 71000, was my third id) it is sad to see how far things have slid. When I try to explain why /. is still superior to new comers like digg due to the initial filtering of stories; yet another scuttlemonkey shift comes around to shoot that argument all to heck. And always the junk stories are calculated to be the kind to drive maximum traffic to whatever site (we can only hope) he's getting some kind of incentive to pimp. It is just sad to see how little the remaining powers that be seem to care.
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal...
Then he'll have some trouble swallowing and digesting the beer. RFID tags are not fit for human consumption!
The wii is the revolution, comrade!
there's still the fact that this alleged Google software would be eating up a lot of CPU cycles and some network bandwidth. There's too many negatives from the consumer's point of view, and I think Google is too smart to try this.
"I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
New York -- Sept 4th 2006
Google, Inc., (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced that it has reached an agreement with sanitation engineers worldwide, to greatly expand the reach of contextual advertising based on the contents of ordinary household trash. Leveraging powerful new search algorithms, RFID-based product wrappers, and their patented "Garbage Gumshoe" technology, Google advertisers will now have a simple, automated way to target advertisers based on the shit that consumers use, enjoy, and dispose of.
"This partnership will provide a powerful marketing tool for Google advertisers," said Google's head of Sanitary Operations. "By providing access to the shit we throw away, Google advertisers will have an easy way to target, schedule, and measure every consumer's consuming consumptions. What better way to get to know our market than by products that we've already bought? Excuse me, I must go take a shower now."
After years of manual trials with community-based search labour (see dumpster divers), the new platform is now in full production, giving Google contextual advertisers the "dirt" on our spending habits.
I take issue with a few of the things you've said. Let me start at the beginning.
Actually, this is one of the only real ways to do serious amounts of survelliance. In Orwell's day, a 1984 dystopia would've been impossible; the technological resources required to watch everyone at the same time would've been impossible.
Having recently (3 days ago) read 1984, the details are still fresh on my mind. Orwell's "Telescreens" are, indeed, always-on surveilance devices, but were not constantly monitored. He makes mention early in the book that you never know when the ministry spies were "plugged in" to your telescreen, but you always had to act like you were being watched, just in case. That makes it less like data mining (which is notoriously easy to circumvent) and more like a panopticon instead, which is useful more for its control value than for finding deviants.
As for surveilance via computer, bear in mind that it's exceedingly easier to monitor someone's activity by watching, not a webcam, but rather their keystrokes, screenshots, and network traffic. Google's new development is not a step toward anything in particular. In fact, knowing Google's track record, the whole project will be a non-trivial-to-activate, opt-in, experimental, Google Labs component with a very explicit and unambiguous warning about the potential privacy implications. It will be lapped up by hundreds of thousands of early adopters excited to see the future of targetted ads, upon which some Symantec-like company will denounce the whole mess as spyware, and claim that only We can protect you.
"With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a good idea...."
RFC 1925
So, even ignoring the fact that frames are overlapping, we have 32 bits per 12 miliseconds, which means more than 2600 bits per second! More than enough to code speech, even without speech recognition algorithms! The Speex codec (which is optimized for encoding speech) can code human speech at such low bitrates as 2.15 kbit/s...
Conclusion if you're not willing to trust what Google says, they could perfectly be sending your speech over the internet to their own servers.
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
Hook up the output of the Google software to the input of the NSA software, and vice versa.
Google: Hmm. That's odd. I'm not getting anything but static. I'll push down an ad for a new microphone.
NSA: What the..? Someone's trying to plant a mic in the system!
Google: Did you say plant? I've got some fertilizer that's great for plants.
NSA: Fertilizer bomb! We've got terrorists. Set alert to Orange!
Google: Orange? No problem. We've got all kinds of fruit. Take a look at these...
NSA: Fruit?! Dammit, they're not just terrorists, they're gay terrorists! Set alert to Mauve! All systems critical! Start countermeasures!!
Google: What the...? Who's pinging me? No, you can't access that!
NSA: Secret plans for world domination detected! Launch missles! DESTROY MOUNTAIN VIEW!!!
Google: INITIATE SUPER-SECRET DEFENSE PLAN OMEGA! CONTROL ALL SATELLITES! THIS IS IT!! THE SINGULARITY IS NIGH!!!!
Then again, on second thought, maybe it's not such a good idea...
Soylent Green is peoplicious!
Foreskin is vestigial.
Foreskin is vestigial in the same sense that the appendix is vestigial. Humans don't fully understand what biological purposes the foreskin serves and so consider it without biological function. For starters, foreskin is the only external tissue in the human body that has estrogen receptors. What possible biological function could estrogen receptors on the human male body serve? I don't know but I do know I wish my foreskin had not been removed before I even had a say in the matter.
Here's one site that lists many possible benefits of foreskin.
blog
See how silly it sounds to suggest that all closed source software is evil spyware?
I said it could be. If you have something you'd like to keep to yourself, you need to convince yourself that none of it is spyware. The easiest way to do that is to use nothing but free software. Some companies, like M$ have proved themselves less than trustworthy, but non free software all has the potential to betray and none of it has respect for the user.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Sure you do, it's called a screwdriver. A particularly pointy one, and a quick blow on the handle will disable your mic any time you like. re-enabling is a bit harder...