As I been reading about different topics in order to progress with my thesis research, I came across the Google I/O 2016. Google I/O is the yearly conference held by Google in San Francisco. Google defines it as "Google I/O is our annual developer festival with hands-on learning, technical talks, and a chance to hear more about Google’s latest developer products" (Google, 2016). It is where the core technology is introduced. The conference also works as a platform where Google introduces new applications and Technologies for mobile devices. By introducing and pubblicing these Technologies they on the other hand desire developers to use/integrate these tools.
Well, I am not a programmer or a mobile web designer, but I always find listening to tech developments useful for my own interests and research. After all, most if not all of these technologies do tracking or monitoring by design.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, gave the keynote speech and he highlighted the direction the technology is evolving towards; mobile technologies, mobile apps, machine learning along with AI, voice recognition, image recognition, finger printing. The aim is to use the applications of Google to "get things done in real World" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=862r3XS2YB0 - start watching from 14.40). He also highlighted their desire to be one stop point for the whole home, the family. Following his speech, Mario Queiroz, introduced the Google Assistant for home in a hands free way. So they created the device Google Home. It is actually integration of the online World in to the home sphere without the need to go online. It is powered by sound recognition, and it continue the two way dialogue, so more machine learning.
So why is this important for surveillance studies point of view. We are already surrounded by all these Technologies that track us. It is the introduction of these Technologies within the home. What you do at home, is not anymore just your business but through voice recognition, it is also Google's business. The private/public space continue to be merged. You do not need to even leave what you are doing or type, it will recognize your voice, Google home will be one of the house inhabitants. You will depend on it, as we depend on Google now in most our daily activities (At least if Google home does not work, there will always be the same old Google in our mobiles and computers). Google is not just a search company, it has diverse variety of businesses. Through opening up the home, we will be also opening up our home to all the business of Google (or Alphabet Inc.). It will also depend on the privacy policy of the Google home how much the information collected within the home sphere would be used in other programs. It can be considered as bringing the immaterial labour or the free labour (of individuals as they produce knowledge as they use these technologies) from the individual to the household level. Thus the individuals (the children), who do not have a mobile phone of their own, become also surveillant subjects within the household. Thus, the ones in the household that used to be immune to the technological surveillance in the sphere of home, become also part of the monitoring. This is also similar to any of the monitoring/contolling(or surveillance) equipment brought to the home aiming to care/control.
One of the other sessions gave the updates about Google Pay. I have not used Google Pay before as my phone does not download it as it is not available in Canada (or my phone setting does not allow me). But, it is the next dimension in the integration of different applications. The usage of Google Pay in the London Underground is effective, and the cash withdraw from Bank of America's ATMs are also effective as of today (18th of May 2016). The applications have been using Google pay (AirBnb) and more applications have been integrating it into their system (Booking.com). The other important issue for the surveillance scholars is the usage of biometrics (finger print scanning) as one of the steps of identity verification. So while our information/activities are being transformed from one application to the other, biometrics become an integral part of it.
Google already knows our lives and it continues to develop applications that know more.
(See https://www.android.com/pay/ for more info)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_I/O
www.android.com/pay/
Google. 2006. Attending. Retrieved from https://events.google.com/io2016/attend
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