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Bill Gates Knows What You Did Last Summer
theodp writes "Give Bill Gates your 'pictures, videos, documents, e-mail, instant messages, addresses, calendar dates/scheduling information (e.g., birthdays, anniversaries, appointments), voice mail, phone logs, RSS feeds, subscriptions, bookmarks, mail lists, project management features, computing device data, tasks and location data,' and he'll improve your 'quality of life.' That's the promise behind a patent issued Thursday to Bill Gates and his 20 co-inventors for 'Personal Data Mining', which Microsoft notes 'can include a monetization component' that 'could initiate an auction to sell information to the highest bidder.'"
Is not privacy essential to a high quality of life?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Isn't this basically the engine inside Clippy only writ large?
[signature]
When Google does it, it's okay. Thats why Slashdot has the evil Borg for Bill Gates and the friendly Google logo for Google.
Isn't that already called Google, where you give them your email, your pictures, your videos, your calendar, all your documents, all your web searches, and about half of your total web surfing (*cough* analytics *cough* doubleclick *cough)?
Test your net with Netalyzr
I think I have a few moonshots just for MS ...
Gates can have all that stuff, but there's no way I'm giving him my chair
1. Collect user's information
2. Offer that information to the highest bidder
3. Include the person of interest in the bidding
4. Profit!!
today after Microsoft partners with the N.S.A. for "help" to
stop the "China hackers".
Encrypt EVERYTHING.
That's all for now , hackerz.
Yours In Minsk,
Kilgore Trout
P.S.:
010001100111010101100011011010110010000001000010011101010111001101101000
So I guess the real choice is whether you want Bill Gates to have all your data, or Steve Jobs. But either way, google already has it. :)
You will adapt to service us. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.
We only wish to improve quality of life...
'pictures, videos, documents, e-mail, instant messages, addresses, calendar dates/scheduling information (e.g., birthdays, anniversaries, appointments), voice mail, phone logs, RSS feeds, subscriptions, bookmarks, mail lists, project management features, computing device data, tasks and location data,
... and then he will use your virtual avatar and put it into a military robot... we know where that goes!
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
So Gates ends up creating the Cylons right?
Come on, Bill, what's all this "Ask" crap about? In a Man's World, you just take someone's data, you don't "Ask" like some panty-waist privacy advocate! You think Sergey Brin would "ask" before he takes my data? Hell, no! Sergey will just take it, sell it to the NSA, and then create an Android app that will let me dial in and get it back again -- for a fee.
Seriously, Bill... first combating world hunger, then curing disease, and now ASKing me before you breach my privacy? You're getting soft. Time to turn that Borg implant in your Slashdot avatar over to Sergey, I'm afraid...
This patent did not issue on Thursday. US patents always issue on Tuesdays. This one issued on 2 February.
The USPTO publishes patent applications (18 months after filing) on Thursdays.
Fuck. That. Shit.
Thanks Big Brother! (1984)
All Bill has to do is give me a book of signed, blank checks and I will improve his 'quality of life'.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
see this link
http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Your negative comments about former President Bush are not very well encrypted...
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
Privacy is not essential to a high quality of life. Having other people merely know everything you do will not decrease your quality of life. To do that, others would have to act on that information in a way that hurts you. If you are confidant that others can not use personal information against you, then there is no need for privacy. For instance, if everyone knew everything about everyone, then everyone would know that someone was using your information against you, and could act against that person.
However, your question does not really address the situation in the article. We all share information with others. If we choose to do so, it is in no way a breach of our privacy. This patent outlines an 'opt-in' method, meaning, there is no breach of privacy, in theory.
However, I am picturing this in action, and the only recommendation I can see a system like this making to people, based on their personal information and the fact that this would be Bilgatus of Borg and the Microsoft Collective producing the software, is: "We think you would enjoy dropping your trousers, bending over, and presenting your lubed up butt hole to Microsoft." So, in practice, I do see this reducing people's quality of life rather than improving it.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Who pioneered the WEB
so what? apple and google have been doing this for over a decade
He needs YOUR privacy to be gone. That is why he has been mining the info for MANY MANY years off of the PCs.
today after Microsoft partners with the N.S.A. for "help" to
stop the "China hackers".
That was Google wanting to partner, not Microsoft. Keep trusting Google and fearing Microsoft, though.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
If this isn't a sign of the coming apocalypse I don't know what is.
Make preparations for the rapture now. I mean, am I right or am I right?
I'll try anything once. Twice if it tastes good
Yeah, he should have shifted the ASCII values by one. Nobody would have been able to decode that!
You seem to be referencing the episode of Futurerama(sp?) where Bender is visiting the moon. Bender is suggesting they start their own moon theme park, 'with blackjack and hookers', only to pause and add that the blackjack isn't really essential.
Ironic, no?
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Here's to hoping that they'll take anyone to court who tries to infringe on their patent!
He started watching Caprica.
When they sell my info to the highest bidder, I get all the proceeds from that sale, since I'm the owner of the information, right? Couldn't somebody game the system by mass-creating virtual identities?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
He could bitwise XOR it with “the Spanish inquisition”.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
...and you're surprised why? Afterall, he can be considered a brilliant ruthless pioneering cut-throat rober baron of the 21st century.
Nobody would expect that!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
being so boring and uninteresting as to induce coma in people looking into your life is all you need.
We are a social society, far many will decry privacy loss and turn around post to internet sites and the like
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Ummm...used Linux? :P
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
would be kinda funny if MS came up with an original idea ?
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
Seriously.
I'll let an algo troll through all my personal data if it does the following:
a. helps me to become more social
b. helps me to meet people who can expand my views
c. help me to engage in consensual sexual activities [between another human and myself]
If it succeeds on at least two of the three areas, I'll lead a richer, fuller life. And if it can do all three, hell. Sell the data, make as much money off of it as you want! I'll be too busy enjoying my new relationships with real people in the real world.
Back to the shell.
I thought we already had Mark Zuckerberg to thank for this.
I thought Windows media player has being doing that all along since Windows xp came out?
Give him anal probes for 70 years, then inject him into Uranus.
Even better for life on Earth is if they would go back in time and do it 30 years ago.
Ummm...used Linux? :P
The reprogramming task force is on the way to you.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
That's the promise behind a patent issued Thursday to Bill Gates and his 20 co-inventors for 'Personal Data Mining', which Microsoft notes 'can include a monetization component' that 'could initiate an auction to sell information to the highest bidder.'
'Cause it's not identity theft if you get paid for it?
Eventually we will all have our own immortal Cylon simulacra dopplegangers.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
You get such interesting stuff when it's way off.
I recently picked up, at a going out of business sale, a piece of jewelry that was normally $1200 for less than $200.
Since then, I've gotten several high end credit card offers, none of which I would normally qualify for.
So mess with the system.
Use your grocery store card... but only when buying beef jerkey and toilet paper.
Get your name on a couple strange mailing lists.
etc.
If the data becomes so worthless that they can't actually use it, they'll stop. But only if enough of us go through with this.
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
(apologies for the formatting, I just created this 20 minutes ago for my own purposes). Bottom line: the entire intention of this Office.Microsoft.com "feature" is misguidedly implemented, showing a complete lack of testing using the common 'alternative' platform.
Visiting Office.Microsoft.com with FireFox and NoScript gives the following message:
Enabling scripts, loading the page, then disabling scripts, results in the message at the top of the page, along with the requested page content (which doesn't appear prior to loading scripts):
Warning: This site requires the use of scripts, which your browser does not currently allow. See how to enable scripts.
That seems to be a disconnect. The second message shows that the site can be used with scripts disabled. The only reason I see the "One Moment Please..." message is the lack of cookies. In theory, the browser would check which versions are installed, and then show customized content for your version. IE browser allows ActiveX controls which could access the local filesystem, which can report that information.
VBScript function ofctestax() creates objects using the following CLSID values and then calls GetOfficeX() and/or GetOfficeLcid() functions to see what's installed:
It then calls the function ofcpost() which sets cookies describing which versions are installed. ofctestax() is called inline from a script at the bottom of the page.
How does this work in FireFox?
ofctestax is a VBScript function, so in IE and any browsers supporting VBScript, it will run. In other browsers, it will not be recognized, and thus be undefined. ofcpost() function is called with default values, setting cookies to uninformative values.
With no cookies, this happens, because ofcpost() calls post() function:
I was camping in a middle of a fucking forest with a herd of hippies, that's what I did.
So, how can you improve the quality of my life, mr. Gates? Can you give me a bigger forest? More hippies? Less villagers with pitchforks?
Having a patent on doing evil does not mean you have to use it. That's what market lock-in monopoly is for. Oh, wait.
Sooo... if Gates and friends got this patent, does that mean that what other companies do already to the avg web surfer become patent infringement?
Where are all the /. posters who've said the past few months that everyone should move to Bing over Google, because Google is the evil behemoth that doesn't respect your privacy?
I'm just curious.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
If the companies weren't so greedy and allowed us to get a small piece of the pie, I'm sure everyone would be happy.
He just used a well known word substitution, "microsoft" for "google". His target audience is in on the code and everybody else thinks he's a moron.
Well, he probably is...
Free Martian Whores!
If Google somehow gets taken out of the picture, this is what we are facing. I much rather have Google sucking my tits than Microsoft taking me hard from behind with a pinapple thank you!
HTTP/1.1 400
FTS:
Evil sons of bitches.
Gaining access to someone's goods for a potential monetary gain.
Microsoft sounds worse than software pirates who do a similiar action for no monetary gain.
Microsoft = a thief
Software Pirates = Robin Hood
Good try Bill, Data mining... yea right... Bill, You will never get your hands on my " Super Dagwood Sandwich" recipe...never... never ever... mwhaah ahaha hahahah
Here's one. I refuse to use Google nowadays.
So Microsoft is patenting Google.
They're probably too busy loving every minute of using Windows 7 while sitting on their iPhone.
At the time, I thought it might be a bunch of shills, since the pro-MS / counter-MS posts weren't following the usual pattern. It's entirely normal to see occasional pro-MS posts, but it's not normal to see LOTS of them at once, and it's very very suggestive to see lots of them concurrent with a marketing blitz.
It's also very very suggestive to see the posting rates collapse back to normal concurrent with the end of a marketing blitz.
i) Obtain something for the lowest price
ii) Sell for the highest price
iii) Profit.
Remember, you heard it here first.
Should not he just retire and not do any more evil?
If I use fireFox, with JavaScript enabled, the cookies are set with default values and therefore the content *is* available regardless of whether I have Office installed.
So you use no script on a ONLINE OFFICE SUITE and then complain it screws up things? Who would've thunk? If Google or MS tested every combo of you messing around, they would be doing only that instead of serving their customers.
Enabling scripts, loading the page, then disabling scripts, results in the message at the top of the page, along with the requested page content (which doesn't appear prior to loading scripts): ,
Ya screw around more.
When you hand him your soul, too, your happiness for the rest of your life is ensured... It's in the blood-signed EULA. Don't worry about the fine print.
That is all.
F...g billionaire - he has too much time on his hands.
Fortunately none of them can find Slashdot any more...
...for Gates patenting their complete business model. Is it more evil that Google didn't patent it, or is it worse that they kept it on the down-low?
How about I give him all my life including myself, and he gives me a million or so dollars. That ought to improve the quality of my life!
Google is nearly as ubiquitous and a tool of the state
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil?
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
a boot stamping on your face forever.
If you're running AdBlock, click on the blacklist for that site. In my case, it's literally the first time I've seen that AdBlock has a mechanism for handling more blocked scripts than my screen can display.
If you're not running AdBlock, and you value your privacy at all, don't read the article.
6 Doubleclick cookies, a Quantserve pixel, cookies AND a pixel image from 2o7, more scripts from more companies than I care to count.
"My God! It's full of crap!"
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
What if the monetization went to the rightful individuals, and Bill & Friends got, say, 10% for managing the thing. Then you could volunteer your data and be compensated for it. With some demographics more valuable than others, you'd create markets.
The current system where corp's assume you're handing your data over for free so they can resell it should be recognized for the fraud it is and renegotiated accordingly.
just ask any botnet operator.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
The people on this patent should be ashamed; there is no innovation contained in it, only an attempt at a patent land-grab.
Redmond?
It wants to be Google! Hahahahaha!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
This might be good, actually.
Now we know to avoid MS, and and for others it's forbidden.
Unless they secretly acquire a license.
Of course, Bill is already well on the way to getting said data, particularly when people seem happy to load up most of it to Facebook.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
"The monetization component 560 is communicatively coupled to the data capture component 510 and the interaction component 520 to facilitate retrieval of personal data and sale thereof. In particular, a user via the interaction component 520 can designate particular information for sale or alternatively protect certain information. Additionally, the user may designate to whom the information can be sold and how to will be used."
It's not like they're going to sell the information without your consent, as the article poster wants to imply...
But this is Slashdot, right? Die, M$!
You've hit on exactly why the sociopath genes are conserved: in moderation, they create leaders and survivor types. Genetically, you can't have a spectrum of behaviors like that without having a few individuals who get the right combination of genes to make them monsters.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton