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Google's Allo App Can Reveal To Your Friends What You've Searched (recode.net)
Google's new messaging app Allo can reveal your search history and other personal information when you include the Google Assistant bot in chats, according to a report. From the article: My friend directed Assistant to identify itself. Instead of offering a name or a pithy retort, it responded with a link from Harry Potter fan website Pottermore. The link led to an extract from "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. But the response was not merely a nonsequitur. It was a result related to previous searches my friend said he had done a few days earlier. [...] When I asked "What is my job?" in my conversation with my friend, Assistant responded by sharing a Google Maps image showing the address at which I used to work -- the address of a co-working space, not the publicly listed address of my previous employer. Google had the address on file because I had included it in my personal Google Maps settings. It did not ask my permission to share that.
I guess I shouldn't have done all those searches on "the best way to murder a friend without getting caught"
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
does anyone know why Slashdot tries to open other web pages when I come to this site, and without my clicking on anything?
When I asked "What is my job?" in my conversation with my friend, Assistant responded by sharing a Google Maps image showing the address at which I used to work -- the address of a co-working space, not the publicly listed address of my previous employer. Google had the address on file because I had included it in my personal Google Maps settings.
Look, it's abundantly clear by now. There are companies... Google, Facebook, Yahoo, plenty of others... whose whole business is built on farming as much information about you as they can. What you look at on the web, even if it's a page that seems to have nothing to do with them on the surface. What you buy. Where you travel in real life. Who your friends are. What you say to your friends. What you say to your family. Your politics. Your religion or lack of religion. Your hobbies. Whether you're in the middle of a divorce, or were just diagnosed with cancer. Everything. They have no limits.
If you continue to feed that machine, it will continue to grow and grow without bounds. It will give you a nice comforting view pretending to be your friend and wonderful helper. It is not your friend. It is not on your side. It does not have your interests at heart, except if they randomly happen to align with its own goal of making money by harvesting data from you. Don't be surprised when you get the world you are voting for.
Stop supporting these things (and then pretending to be surprised when they go all creepy stalker). Store your data locally. Communicate with friends and family without funneling everything you say through them. Get off their social networks. Block their tracking bugs.
I can see this being VERY damaging to society as a whole.
For example, imagine the trouble that can ensue from Allo revealing what your search history is. For example imagine your discover your wife/husband has been googling lots of articles about divorce. It may actually be because they are finding ways to best help a friend through their problems, but you can imagine the stress discovering just that fact in isolation might cause in a relationship.
Its also directly encouraging a "N. Korea" type society where you can be judged on your private thoughts. For example you could be a perfectly stable person but just because you googled some stuff about the NRA, your opinions are now perceived as sufficiently alternative from the current pee-cee status quo that you might not even get through any job interview in CA.
For the ten people who use Allo to chat with other people.
"Hey man, want to see a movie this weekend"?
@Google Assistant @: I can tell from recent searches you are into hairy men, would you be our guest at a viewing of Beauty and the Beast?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley