Privacy is a big issue nowadays. With civil servants and private companies losing details left, right and centre, and with marketing companies and governments vying to gather ever more private details about people, the debate has heated up like never before. With all the big news being online privacy (Phorm, anyone?), mobile phones have gotten off relatively lightly, so far.
That could well be about to change, according to Engadget Mobile, with news of IMMI (Integrated Media Measurement), a research company dedicated to finding out the exposure and effectiveness of ad campaigns.
What’s scary, though, is how it measures that effectiveness. Essentially, it involves a module that sits in your mobile phones, and permanently listens in on everything the phone hears (presumably not just when you’re on a call, either), and gets triggered off by hearing key sounds, like a particular advert. Then, if you were to purchase the product advertised, or go see the movie you saw the trailer for, it would register that you heard the ad, then took the product.
So, let me get this straight… it’s a third-party bit of kit, that sits inside your mobile phone, and listens to everything going on round you, but promises it only records adverts, not people talking, or conversations. However, what is in there to stop your mobile phone from eavesdropping on your private conversations?
Just a hop, skip and a jump until someone suggests this should be implemented on ALL mobile phones, to stop the ever-present, massively-over-exaggerated threat of terrorists, then. The Home Office must be jumping up and down with excitement!
Oh, and incidentally, if this module’s constantly using the mic, expect the battery on your mobile phone to last a fraction of its normal battery life…
At the minute, only volunteers who’ve explicitly signed up have this service, but unfortunately, it’s one of those things I can see a lot of marketing peeps want to get their hands on it.
Meanwhile, get a phone that doesn’t spy on you, something like the brilliant Blackberry Storm!
