Free Phone Calls... If Advertisers Can Eavesdrop

Dekortage writes "Today, Pudding Media is introducing an Internet phone service similar to Skype's online service, but without any toll charges. The catch: they are eavesdropping on phone calls with voice recognition software to monitor calls, then push conversation-relevant the ads to the subscriber's computer screen. Interestingly, during tests, "conversations [were] actually changing based on what was on the screen," said the president. "Our ability to influence the conversation was remarkable.""

How do I tag?

Where's the "sheeple" tag? How do I tag a /. article?

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Click on the arrow on the left of the tags list.

Re:How do I tag?

That's just for getting a widget that gives you the illusion that you're tagging the article. For your tag to really show up in the list of tags, something else is needed — some very secret voodoo it seems.

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That is hilarious. A sheeple tag gets added based on suggestion.

"The tags on the article were actually chaning based on what the first post recommended.", said one editor, "it was amazing how much he was able to influence the tagging." Or the like.

Re:How do I tag?

Don't think this isn't already happening on land lines - and the ads show up as the Swat team.

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"This most persuasive ad brought to you by Heckler & Koch."

If I get this service...

I should discuss my grandma's sweet 'n' sour chicken breast recipe more often...

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Just make certain the other person's grandma doesn't make the world's best sausage.

Re:If I get this service...

Let's hope it doesn't call for goat cheese.

Re:If I get this service...

Hi Jack.

I rack my brain and all I can think is that
the president of this company is an insane,
i.e. deluded. The plan and the company will
bomb. Can you picture the all the national
explosive television news when a bunch of
senators get called and find THEY got recorded.
Gee, had they thought of that? The story isn't a
sleeper, sell newspapers is what it will do.

Oh cool, I just got this sweet offer for a complete box set of Friends DVDs.

-

Fascinating

I can't wait to see ads for hookers and blow on my computer screen.

I mean - more ads for hookers and blow.

So, it's like the NSA...

...but somebody is cashing in on ad revenue at the same time?

Seriously, though, I'm not to the point where my phone bill is so expensive I'd do this. Cable TV on the other hand...

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...but somebody is cashing in on ad revenue at the same time?
Seriously, though, I'm not to the point where my phone bill is so expensive I'd do this. Cable TV on the other hand...

That's what I thought initially, then I realized that the consumer is the one adapting to the business model. This means that instead of unknowingly and unintentionally giving up rights, the customer is completely in the know.

Additionally, they are off

Except that ...

Except that this is a legal morass in the making.

Sure, they got an opt-in of the caller but do they have opt-in from the recipient?! So some imbecile calls you on that thing, and without warning you are being monitored/recorded by some inane corporate NSA-wannabe operation, with no idea by whom and where your call is being listened to, and retained for purposes you can't predict.

The only way I can see this being even remotely legal in many places is if you get a message in the vain of "The party calling you has opted for recording of this call for undetermined purposes by any and all corporate afilliates of afilliates of the NSA-wannabies who paid the sheep in question for his call, Press 1 to accept the incoming call, Baaaaah, Press 2 to indicate that you still have a brain..." or some such.

Re:Except that ...

They are not keeping logs? Don't make me laugh. How would they even keep statistics of what is going on with their ad system?! How would they prove to their customers, the ad buyers, that they are actually popping them in context, instead of simply cheating and doing it at random?!

You've confused corporate-speak with reality.

In real life, in order to do voice recognition function, it has to be tuned on real data. In order to tune it, you have to collect samples, listen to them yourself and then compare the results to the automated recognition system. That is what they, by necessity, must do. Furthermore, the very process requires that your conversation is recorded, in some stages of the process, in digital form, even if that recording is supposed to be discarded further on. It is tivial for the employees or an unscrupulous business person to take advantage of that. And I guarantee you that in the fine, fine print of your "free service" agreement you agree to not hold them responsible should your conversations find their way to the "stupidest phone calls evah!" web site or some such.

In short, when you sign for this shit, you are as good as recorded for any and all uses the corporate crooks can think of today or will think of tommorrow.

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AT&T isn't an opt-in service. This garbage is.

Really? Is it for the recipient of the call? How does he/she know that the call is being recorded?

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IgnoramusMaxiumus wrote:

Really? Is it for the recipient of the call? How does he/she know that the call is being recorded?

They probably don't. Most states (38/51) are single party notification states [rcfp.org]. See also Wikipedia on Telephone Recording Laws [wikipedia.org].

This may be the dark side of single party notification laws; which generally are a good thing as th

Test Conversation

"Our ability to influence the conversation was remarkable."

Phil: Hey Bob I just got into the beta for a new Internet phone service and I'm calling you right now on it.
Bob: Oh yeah? Oh, is that the free phone calls with conversation-relevant ads showing up on your screen?
Phil: That's right, it's completely free!
Bob: Heh, monkey sex.
Phil: Uh, what?
Bob: Monkey sex!
Phil: Ew, gross, stop that.
Bob: Beastiality.
Phil: Oh yuck, these flash based ads are ...
Bob: Goatse.
Phil: Ahhhhhhhhh! *click*

Chaffing the system

Since the system is free there's no harm, to you at least, in having infinite length phone calls. So do the following..call yourself (one browser to another). Play MP3s or NPR or Rush limbaugh into it. This will chaffe the system with ludicrous amounts

This is how it works...

So adverts shown on screen changed what the callers were talking about?

Me: Hi boss, I was thinking about a raise...
Boss: Hi. Er, did you know you can get herbal viagra?

oh boy!

Oh boy! Another way to get all of those ads and offers I so enjoy to my computer screen! I thought all this adware stuff was the bees knees. Now this comes along!

Please stop the ads

Please stop the ads. Just stop. Stop the ads on TV and radio, in magazines and movies, at ball games and on buses, on milk cartons and t-shirts, and everywhere else inbetween. Just stop the damn advertising already!

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So why don't you buy a Slashdot subscription? Someone has to pay their costs, either you pay yourself by subscribing, or the ads pay for you so you don't have to.

If you don't accept that there are ads, and you don't want to pay a subscription, who do you e

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I suppose I'm dating myself,

Come to think of it, of course I'm dating myself, who else would a slashdotter date?

Re:Please stop the ads

The parent post is brought to you by: Gradma's old-fashioned posts. Remember a time when discussions weren't threaded? Gradma does.

Time to learn an obscure foreign language

Or make up your own. At least they'll have to work for it.

Seriously, though. People that go for this are dumbshits.

Re:Time to learn an obscure foreign language

Which raises my question, will the receiver of the phone call know that they are being eavesdropped upon? What about their rights? Idiots occasionally call me and I don't want to have to worry about this. BTW, I didn't RTFA. The answer could already be in there.

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Why are they dumbshits? A computer listens to your conversation and throws up ads. Ever use gmail, because that is exactly what gmail does to your email.

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Esperanto anyone?

Three words.

Ig-pay atin-lay [google.com].

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Diabolical. You even used one less word than you announced.

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Or one more, depending on how you count it.

hmm

I'd easily consider taking this on (although it seems to suggest that it's only north american numbers, and they probably don't have a linux client...). Still, whilst it is possible (though unlikely) that a human could listen to what you're saying I have to question whether they would actually want to listen to what I'm saying - or if I would care if they are. Granted I'm not going to use this for telephone banking, and probably not even for calling my girlfriend, I really don't care if they listen to my mum talking for half an hour about her dog or hear me arrange a party... or shout down the phone whilst drunk at people about the importance of egalitarianism (but that's another story...)

riight.

I wonder if their software can detect if I dial the speaking clock and leave it off hook?
http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/speaking_clock.htm [telephonesuk.co.uk]

Seriously, this sounds a little intrusive. Voice recognition my ass, I bet there is a clause in their contract stating the call may be recorded for future training, enhancement, fun, profit and any damn reason they like. 'Scuze me while I reach for my phrases and codes book.

What numbers do they use?

I don't want to talk to anybody using this service. How can I block them? Do they announce to innocent (called) parties that they're invading your privacy at the beginning of a call?

Now, consider what scumbags like Comcast could do with this. They bundle phone, cable, and Internet. So they could tweak not just your banner ads, but also your TV ads (using an upgraded on-demand system). And they could use peeping on one service to affect the others. For example, they could change your web ads based on what shows you watch. The only question is whether they think the cost in lawsuits (from other advertisers and customers) would be worth it. Hmm, maybe they can tie it into the DHS "we need retroactive immunity for any crime on the grounds that it would be bad for business for us to be subject to the law" stuff. Obviously the program could service "national security" purposes as well.

Why are all my ads about...

funny. I just made a call yesterday using this system and suddenly I'm getting ads about weapons, espionage, government contractors...

wait a sec. Some men in black are knocking on my window. brb.

What is this madness?????

"Didn't you have ads in the twentieth century?"

"Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio... and in magazines... and movies, and at ballgames, and on buses, and milk cartons, and T-shirts, and bananas, and written in the sky. But not in dreams, no sirree."

Time to brush up on that Klingon....

There's no way to understand every language spoken. Perhaps we should begin learning unusual languages, such as Navajo. It worked in WWII!

But then watch th EULA for these things. "We limit the right to speak only English on these phones"

I've never seen a better reason...

I've never seen a better reason to start speaking in Ubbi dubbi [wikipedia.org].

Screw Content, What About Remediation?

Advertising Content is a commodity. That is not the concern.

What I wonder what the law says about computer-based eavesdropping? If a crime is plotted or committed over this line, does it make the software complicit?

So it doesn't record the whole conversa

It'll fail.

Interestingly, during tests, "conversations [were] actually changing based on what was on the screen,"

Of course: DURING TESTS. The sole purpose of the test is to test what they're testing, so it's the subject of interest without any magic required. How about influencing a real world call, emergent call, bad news call, good news call. Anything-else-than-playing-with-the-system call.

And their scheme has a flaw: I can keep talking with my screen turned off. Their advertisers better be dumb enough not to figure out that one.

Odd combination

It's like Echelon got drunk and woke up next to a spam-bot. Man, that's an ugly child.

My god what's next??

I'm not letting anyone profit off *my* communications.

What's next? Free comment-sections on websites? ... as long as I log in?

How could anyone subject themselves to such a sacrifice of personal liberties.

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Thank god they don't know what television shows I'm watching...

While I personally...

...would never use this service, and while I despise ads as much as the next person, I don't quite get what all the fuss is over. You KNOW that they are recording your phone call, they tell you everything up front, you get free phone service...yes, you have to look at ads, but hey! At least they are pertinent to you and yours.

If I have to see advertisements everywhere, I don't want to see shit for Viagra or a low mortgage rate...I want to see ads for video games, horror movies, fetish stores, and computer equipment.

Seriously, there is no way to escape advertisement (yes, I know there is AdBlock and NoScript), so why not at least have advertisements that you would be at least REMOTELY interested in? Target audience and all that... If Comcast knew what kind of products I was interested in and I got to see ads for only those type of products while watching what little TV I watch, I would be much less inclined to leave the room or fast forward on Tivo. Instead, I get stuck with commercials for tampons and "beer" (i.e. watered down piss...I love being from and living in the USA, but christ we have NO tatse in beer)

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One point is, does the person on the other end of the line know that the conversation is 'voluntarily wire-tapped'?

Voice recognition liability

They want to rely on voice recognition software? Well then I guess it will be a good deal, since that stuff doesn't work worth a damn. More interestingly, what does voice recognition software do when it identifies a threat to US persons, which, under US signals laws, would require reporting? What happens if their voice recognition software doesn't catch a specific threat? I think (hope) liability alone will put this model under.

Free calls for everyone!

So, if someone listens in on your phone calls, then they pay for them?

So why aren't all of our calls paid for by the US Government, then?

Cool!!!!

A service specifically designed for the "I have nothing to hide, so I don't care if they wiretap" people!

Now I just need to figure out if someone I know is using the service....... So I can sell them a Bridge........

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Let me guess, you're going to be getting ads for lawyers and bail bondsmen.