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.
Reminds me of this quote from Futurama:
My internet browser heard us say the word “Fry” and found this movie on Philip Fry. It also opened my calendar to Friday and ordered some french fries.
Go Google!
