Google Now Reads Emailed Bills, Reminds You To Pay Them

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
And by "pretty handy," I think what Google really meant to say was "creepy as hell."

When you can't remember whether you've paid your bills—or you simply can't remember how much money you need to pay—you can now just ask Google. Tap the mic on the Google app (g.co/googleapp) and say, “Show me my bills” or “My bills due this week.” If you have the payment due date and amount in your Gmail, you’ll see a quick summary of upcoming and past bills. Pretty handy, huh?
Click to expand...
 
The comments about it on the site are veeeery positive. Those few dissenters will suffer Google-y wrath.
 
Basically by examining your bills, electrical & heating, they could probably estimate your home size and get your location so they have a good estimate of how much your house costs. And from your disposible billing on credit cards, estimate your income. Are they monetizing that info, you bet. Do they sill monetize it if you opt out of the service. My guess is yes.
 
jpm100 said:
Basically by examining your bills, electrical & heating, they could probably estimate your home size and get your location so they have a good estimate of how much your house costs. And from your disposible billing on credit cards, estimate your income. Are they monetizing that info, you bet. Do they sill monetize it if you opt out of the service. My guess is yes.
Click to expand...

Or you could just look at public record for the home size and purchase prices.. I wouldn't imagine the amount someone purchases with a credit card would be a good indicator of their income level either. They would probably have better luck scanning email for W-2's being emailed back and forth between CPA's and clients to find that number.
 
jpm100 said:
Basically by examining your bills, electrical & heating, they could probably estimate your home size and get your location so they have a good estimate of how much your house costs. And from your disposible billing on credit cards, estimate your income. Are they monetizing that info, you bet. Do they sill monetize it if you opt out of the service. My guess is yes.
Click to expand...

If you own an Android phone they already know where you live. They can also figure that out from your originating IP address too. Google doesn't need your bills for that part. They already know. This is like a supplemental thing-y to give them a clearer picture into your life.
 
I guess having information about a victim's credit rating helps Google sell the data.

It will probably also helps with that patent they got on figuring out the maximum people are willing to pay for goods.
 
If you choose to have emails of your bills or other personal information sent to you via ANY electronic means, then they get read. Deal with it. As for google reminding you about appointments or bills (or etc) from the emails that get sent to your gmail, great. I could use the reminder.

The conspiracy theories are stronger in here now than in years past. Big reason I don't read [H] much any more. (Oh, why would google need to "look anything up"? Heard of Goggle Maps + GPS? Purchase a Nexus device? Have your GAPPs purchased in the market on a credit card? Use G+?)
 
Creeped me out when I realized Microsoft Outlook was reading my emails as I typed them. "Here's the file I was going to attach" *clicks send*

(pop up) Did you mean to attach a file

:D
 
If Google see's emails from UPS or FEDEX (or Newegg or Amazon), it will "tell" you the status of those shipments so it's not just bills they are scanning.
 
I think you guys are confused...

Hasn't Google always read your emails? It's just that now, they're using it to remind you.
 
robcreepy said:
Or you could just look at public record for the home size and purchase prices.. I wouldn't imagine the amount someone purchases with a credit card would be a good indicator of their income level either. They would probably have better luck scanning email for W-2's being emailed back and forth between CPA's and clients to find that number.
Click to expand...

How much would hiring someone to track down someone's public record cost when, if they are online are online in a way that is unique from municipality to municipality?

"Can" for one specific person and doing it in a monetizable way for millions are two different things. Also, just because there is a scenario in which 'X' can possibly happen, doesn't make doing 'X' ok.
 
robcreepy said:
Or you could just look at public record for the home size and purchase prices.. I wouldn't imagine the amount someone purchases with a credit card would be a good indicator of their income level either. They would probably have better luck scanning email for W-2's being emailed back and forth between CPA's and clients to find that number.
Click to expand...

Or just running a damn credit check and querying Loan App records.
 
what's next? they gonna scan all the purchases we make online and sending it to the IRS?
 
pothb said:
I think you guys are confused...

Hasn't Google always read your emails? It's just that now, they're using it to remind you.
Click to expand...

Yes, but now even you, the cattle, can benefit from them reading your mail!
 
My conclusion is that Google wants my next phone to be an iPhone Plus, after owning 5 or 6 android phones. They are getting too creepy, and I don't trust them, or their relationship with the us gov.
 
Personally I think this shit is awesome, another example of how technology is and will be moreso in the future, in service of people.
 
Rune75 said:
If you choose to have emails of your bills or other personal information sent to you via ANY electronic means, then they get read. Deal with it. As for google reminding you about appointments or bills (or etc) from the emails that get sent to your gmail, great. I could use the reminder.

The conspiracy theories are stronger in here now than in years past. Big reason I don't read [H] much any more. (Oh, why would google need to "look anything up"? Heard of Goggle Maps + GPS? Purchase a Nexus device? Have your GAPPs purchased in the market on a credit card? Use G+?)
Click to expand...

Why should people have to 'deal with it" . The Post office didn't just open all you're mail, copy it and use it later.

There needs to be better laws and protection for consumers that use 3rd parties and that those parties can not just freely do as they wish with the info because it passes through them.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Why should people have to 'deal with it" . The Post office didn't just open all you're mail, copy it and use it later.

There needs to be better laws and protection for consumers that use 3rd parties and that those parties can not just freely do as they wish with the info because it passes through them.
Click to expand...

maybe you've never heard this analogy before

sending an email is like sending a post card, anyone can read it if they want to.

if you want to keep prying eyes away from your mail, just encrypt it lol
 
MrGuvernment said:
Why should people have to 'deal with it" . The Post office didn't just open all you're mail, copy it and use it later.

There needs to be better laws and protection for consumers that use 3rd parties and that those parties can not just freely do as they wish with the info because it passes through them.
Click to expand...

The post office is a government agency and is regulated by constitutional restrictions on search and seizure ... email is usually provided by private enterprises and they provide the terms and conditions (which most people don't read) that specify under what circumstances you can use their service ... as long as they specify what they do in their terms and conditions then I have no problem with anything they do ;)
 
MrGuvernment said:
Why should people have to 'deal with it" . The Post office didn't just open all you're mail, copy it and use it later.

There needs to be better laws and protection for consumers that use 3rd parties and that those parties can not just freely do as they wish with the info because it passes through them.
Click to expand...

The business model which allows them to offer the e-mail service for free in the first place is built upon the idea of perusing someone's e-mails to glean information that allows for more targeted advertising, thereby increasing potential revenues from the companies doing the advertising because Google can demonstrate that the target audience is being reached.
 
MrGuvernment said:
There needs to be better laws and protection for consumers that use 3rd parties and that those parties can not just freely do as they wish with the info because it passes through them.
Click to expand...

You agreed to it when you setup a "FREE" email account.

If you don't want anyone reading your emails, then get your own domain and setup your own encrypted email server.
 
kbrickley said:
The post office is a government agency and is regulated by constitutional restrictions on search and seizure ... email is usually provided by private enterprises and they provide the terms and conditions (which most people don't read) that specify under what circumstances you can use their service ... as long as they specify what they do in their terms and conditions then I have no problem with anything they do ;)
Click to expand...

oh really? then I guess you would have no problem rewarding someones firstborn to a corporation because they clicked a button :)
 
I guess this is what the comments are like in the "Post-Snowden Era" (I think that's what they call it now). Why the paranoia? What is everyone ultimately afraid that Google is going to do with your information? The last time someone tried to explain this fear to me, they brought up the Nazis and Jews...

So can anyone sane actually answer this question?
 
bryant12489 said:
I guess this is what the comments are like in the "Post-Snowden Era" (I think that's what they call it now). Why the paranoia? What is everyone ultimately afraid that Google is going to do with your information? The last time someone tried to explain this fear to me, they brought up the Nazis and Jews...

So can anyone sane actually answer this question?
Click to expand...

Sane? Well....

130450_o.gif


No, sane people here. Buuut, I think people do feel uncomfortable when they realize that Google's collecting data from your phone, browser, e-mail, and from many websites through ad services and other tools (seriously, have you looked at the number of times Google URLs come up in noscript on websites...they're literally everywhere through apis, ads, and whatnot) so they can compile a vast quantity of data and tie it all together to get a complete picture of a person's inner mental workings even if they really haven't consented explicitly in the first place because Google is widespread enough to gather a pretty good bit of information from people who don't use their services.

Take someone who has an Android phone and has no idea it's a Google product. (Yup, there's people like that out there.) Even without signing up for a Google account by bypassing the setup and never installing any apps, the phone can and will send every single phone call, your location, text messages, photos and videos captured, websites viewed, stuff you log into at those websites, and so forth back home. Google is also crawling the web, picking up potentially related information on that same person. Google is being made aware of everything that happens in that same person's browser if they're using Chrome or at least every single site Google's ad services or other offerings appear on. While Google is gathering this information mostly to sell to advertisers (supposedly removing personally identifying characteristics from it) and using it to conduct research to develop new products, it's a lot of information to have on hand. Their EULA was recently rewritten to remove legal sounding language which, while seemingly great for the average person, makes it vague and open to multiple interpretations (which is something legalese attempts to avoid) which has yet to find its way into courts yet for testing and precedence.

I think it's not about what Google is currently doing, but what Google might be able to do with the stuff it's already gathered. Keep in mind, we're talking about around a decade of this kinda stuff so there's like ten years of collection happening even to people who are underage and not able to legally consent to such things (if the US, someone under 18 can't legally consent to anything and can't enter into a binding legally enforcable contract). All that makes some people a little nervous. Add the accused connections between Google's collection and mining mechanisms to compliance with various nations' governments and the tinfoil hat neo-anarchists are scared into crazy-cakes land. People are punching Google Glass wearers in the face (haven't heard much about that product lately since all the turmoil come to think of it) for being an invasive window into the world for Google's peering eye and you have a recipie for a huge firestorm of angry people yelling at one another.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Even without signing up for a Google account by bypassing the setup and never installing any apps, the phone can and will send every single phone call, your location, text messages, photos and videos captured, websites viewed, stuff you log into at those websites, and so forth back home.
Click to expand...

Oh holy shit very very no they do not. They don't even do that if you *are* signed in. Phone calls, text messages, websites viewed, stuff you log into - none of that leaves your device *unless you asked it to* by enabling things like Chrome Sync which obviously send websites viewed back, how else would sync work? But there's also an option there to have it be encrypted client-side with a passphrase of your choosing first, so Google gets nothing but a blob they can't read.

Google is being made aware of everything that happens in that same person's browser if they're using Chrome
Click to expand...

Again, wrong.

While Google is gathering this information mostly to sell to advertisers (supposedly removing personally identifying characteristics from it)
Click to expand...

And *also* wrong. Your information never, ever leaves Google's servers. Their very livlihood requires that. They do *NOT* make money by selling data, that is a claim made by those who don't have the foggiest clue how targetted advertising works or what Google's business model is.
 
kllrnohj said:
Oh holy shit very very no they do not. They don't even do that if you *are* signed in. Phone calls, text messages, websites viewed, stuff you log into - none of that leaves your device *unless you asked it to* by enabling things like Chrome Sync which obviously send websites viewed back, how else would sync work? But there's also an option there to have it be encrypted client-side with a passphrase of your choosing first, so Google gets nothing but a blob they can't read.



Again, wrong.



And *also* wrong. Your information never, ever leaves Google's servers. Their very livlihood requires that. They do *NOT* make money by selling data, that is a claim made by those who don't have the foggiest clue how targetted advertising works or what Google's business model is.
Click to expand...

Um...proof?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top