More on Google listening to phone calls
The Google plan to have their AI listen in on phone calls (ostensibly
to help detect scam calls, which will be an arms race as AI creates
ever better scam calls!) is beyond irresponsible.
Even if the system is on-device, creating a path for listening in
invites governments and courts to order Google to listen for "other
things" and notify when these occur. These could be targeted at
individuals or the entire population of a state or country -- like the
word "abortion". This is much the same scenario as what caused such
massive backlash at Apple for their rescinded plan to do on-device
image scanning.
In a legal context, Google's plan seems even worse. By blurring the
line between strict wiretapping laws and much looser laws on computer
content and metadata, Google is inviting the nightmare scenario of
every phone call being effectively scanned for words, phrases, and
more that are considered to be of interest to various authorities who
have always wanted to listen in on everyone's calls. It was never
actually clear how genuine the claims were that intelligence agencies
had related capabilities years ago -- but now Google wants to make
sure it's in all our phones, for certain.
Oh, and as a bonus, how long before Google offers advertisers a way to
target ads based on the contents of those conversations? Another
conspiracy favorite that Google could easily make real!
Google is creating exactly the kind of horrific scenarios that
conspiracy theorists have been ranting about for many years. Google is
now rushing to make it all real. Awful. -L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
[email protected] (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
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