>From - Sat Mar 02 00:57:25 2024
Received: by 10.224.173.202 with SMTP id q10mr6475040qaz.3.1353867897786;
Sun, 25 Nov 2012 10:24:57 -0800 (PST)
X-BeenThere: tscm-l2006_at_googlegroups.com
Received: by 10.49.120.129 with SMTP id lc1ls1356442qeb.79.gmail; Sun, 25 Nov
2012 10:24:55 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.224.105.205 with SMTP id u13mr6467296qao.6.1353867895511;
Sun, 25 Nov 2012 10:24:55 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.224.67.196 with SMTP id s4msqai;
Mon, 12 Nov 2012 04:19:11 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.58.132.145 with SMTP id ou17mr5803246veb.41.1352722751449;
Mon, 12 Nov 2012 04:19:11 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.58.132.145 with SMTP id ou17mr5803245veb.41.1352722751437;
Mon, 12 Nov 2012 04:19:11 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path: <count..._at_ureach.com>
Received: from ureach.com (mail31.ureach.com. [63.236.74.16])
by gmr-mx.google.com with ESMTP id bn19si2224282vdb.0.2012.11.12.04.19.11;
Mon, 12 Nov 2012 04:19:11 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: best guess record for domain of count..._at_ureach.com designates 63.236.74.16 as permitted sender) client-ip=63.236.74.16;
Authentication-Results: gmr-mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: best guess record for domain of count..._at_ureach.com designates 63.236.74.16 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=count..._at_ureach.com
Received: from ureach.com (web32.ureach.com [172.16.2.54])
by ureach.com (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id qACCJBF6016198
for <tscm-..._at_googlegroups.com>; Mon, 12 Nov 2012 07:19:11 -0500
Received: (from apache_at_localhost)
by ureach.com (8.13.8/8.13.4/Submit) id qACCJADk029261;
Mon, 12 Nov 2012 07:19:10 -0500
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2012 07:19:10 -0500
Message-Id: <201211121219.qACCJADk029261_at_ureach.com>
Received: from [96.31.201.22] by web32 via HTTP; Mon, 12 Nov 2012 12:19:10 GMT
To: "Roger at Bugsweeps" <tscm-..._at_googlegroups.com>
From: "ACM" <count..._at_ureach.com>
Reply-to: <count..._at_ureach.com>
Subject: Re: [TSCM-L] {6275} Big Brother alert: Microsoft Invades. Wants to know how many friends you've got in your living room
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-vsuite-type: e
Kinda funny to see technology that can be defeated with a piece of tape over the
lense!
________________________________________________
Get your own "800" number
Voicemail, fax, email, and a lot more
http://www.ureach.com/reg/tag
---- On Sun, 11 Nov 2012, Roger at Bugsweeps (bugs..._at_earthlink.net) wrote:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/micwright/100008237/big-brother-alert-microsoft-wants-to-know-how-many-friends-youve-got-in-your-living-room/
Big Brother alert: Microsoft wants to know how many friends you've got in your
living room
By Mic Wright
Gadgets Last updated: November 9th, 2012
123 Comments
Comment on this article
One of Microsoft’s latest
patent applications is a humdinger. It proposes to turn the
Kinect camera into a snitch for movie
studios, reporting back just how many friends you’ve got in your living room
and what they’re
watching. Think that sounds alarmist? Here’s what it actually says: “The
users consuming the
content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views
licensed is exceeded,
remedial action may be taken.” It’s that blatant – a system to spy on
private viewing habits.
If put into practice, Microsoft’s plan could mean that the film you’re
watching suddenly stops
playing if it detects that you’ve got more people squashed on to the sofa than
the licence allows.
You’d then be prompted to buy a more expensive licence to keep watching.
It’s as if Big Brother
had built 1984’s Telescreen not to monitor the population but to ensure no one
was pirating the Two
Minutes Hate.
In all likelihood, Microsoft will struggle to actually apply this patent in the
real world. While
copyright holders would be delighted, customers would be turned off by such a
draconian system. But
that’s what’s interesting about this application and patent applications in
general: they often
reveal what companies would do if they could get away with it. The black and
white drawings and
blandly technical language can cover immoral, scary and downright evil ideas.
There was an even more
striking example from Apple earlier this year. In September, it was granted a
patent for “Apparatus
and methods for enforcement of policies upon a wireless device”, i.e. a system
allowing companies
or governments to remotely disable mobile phones and tablets in a particular
area.
While Apple mentions benign examples such as
preventing phone calls from disturbing concerts or ensuring devices are switched
off on planes, it
also states: “Covert police or government operations may require complete
"blackout" conditions.”
That’s exactly the kind of feature certain governments would love to use to
suppress pictures and
videos. The patent Apple put its stamp on is a handy form of censorship
regardless of whether it will
ever apply it.
Last year, Google’s chairman, Eric Schmidt, said that the company would hold
off from creating a
facial recognition service because it would be “crossing the creepy line”.
Still, Google has
filed for and been granted extensive patents in the area and, as its Project
Glass augmented reality
goggles move forward, who knows when the “creepy line” will shift?
Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:25 CST