MY OTHER PHONE IS A ROBOT

[defrog]

ITEM [via Pink Tentacle]: In future, yr mobile phone will also be a robot that follows you around recording and learning yr every move.

On the bright side, it’ll be cute as a button.



That’s the “Polaris” mobile phone robot, designed by Tokyo-based Flower Robotics and KDDI (the second biggest mobile phone operator in Japan). It comprises a mobile handset and an artificially intelligent robot sphere that charges the handset and displays data on the user’s TV.

According to Flower Robotics, the Polaris system ... is designed to learn the user’s lifestyle by collecting data, analyzing activity, and identifying trends. The robot keeps a database of information accumulated through the handset, such as the user’s daily travel and walking habits, calls and email messages sent and received, and online transactions. Using this data, Polaris learns to predict the user’s behavior and offer relevant advice and information.

I’ve seen a number of similar projects from Japanese companies that basically involve insanely cute robots with Ethernet jacks or Wi-Fi chips wandering around yr house acting as a personal data agent that surfs the Web for you and finds information you need when you ask for it, learning yr info patterns as it goes.

But this is the first one I’ve seen using a mobile phone. It’s an interesting twist, in that mobiles are designed more and more to collect data about the user. Imagine plugging yr iPhone into a Polaris, which will then register things like which apps you downloaded or used, web sites you visited, geotag data from yr GPS chip, stuff you bought from Amazon.com and songs you listened to on iTunes while you were out and about.

This is nothing new. Mobile phone companies and handset manufacturers have known for some time that both the networks and phones contain data that add up to a goldmine of potential personalized marketing profiles. The catch has been that it’s stored in such a compartmentalized way that it’s hard to access and compile into something that can be data mined. That’s changing – which is one reason why Google and Yahoo are suddenly a lot more interested in the mobile business.

DISCLAIMER: None of this is meant to sound scary or paranoid. But it goes back to what I was getting at in this post: yr digital footprint was already huge even before mobile phones figured into it. There are as many benefits to this as there are risks. The problem isn’t that all this data is being collected – the issue is who gets to access it, and how much say-so you have over that.

In the palm of yr hand,

This is dF

Comments

[loissanborn.livejournal.com]

In my information technology class the subject of smart cards came up, and I made an argument strikingly similar to yours. The teacher said that there was no way marketing companies would be allowed to access information from smart cards, and he said that I was being paranoid. I said that there would always be a lobbyist arguing that the information gained from accessing smart cards would better the economy, and with major marketing companies pouring money into the campaign, lawmakers would be inclined to listen.

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

One thing to add to that is that the teacher seems to assume (1) the data on that smart card (and the account behind it) is secure and safe and will never be hacked or lost on a thumb drive or laptop or "leaked" by an insider looking for extra money, (2) all marketing companies are scrupulous enough to abide by the law, and (3) existing laws already protect you if the data is leaked. None of which is the case all the time.

He also may be assuming that the data belongs to you, and you have control over it just like you do with yr medical records. At the moment, it doesn't, and you don't. And that's the problem.

Here's some homework for you:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/unfair_and_dece.html

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/08/hacking_mifare.html

[loissanborn.livejournal.com]

Schneier makes pretty much the same point that I was trying to make... except he does it in a much more thorough way. 0_o

I find that I disagree with my teachers a lot these days... more so than when I was younger, and I was a devil student when I was first in college. One of my mundane joys when I was first in college was to prove teachers wrong. Now-a-days I take more pleasure in exposing them as idiots to the rest of the class.

I know... it's a sad hobby, but I'm a brat.