Company Will Monitor Phone Calls to Tailor Ads

[Skinner]

Source: New York Times

(snip)

Pudding Media, a start-up based in San Jose, Calif., is introducing an Internet phone service today that will be supported by advertising related to what people are talking about in their calls. The Web-based phone service is similar to Skype’s online service — consumers plug a headset and a microphone into their computers, dial any phone number and chat away. But unlike Internet phone services that charge by the length of the calls, Pudding Media offers calling without any toll charges.

The trade-off is that Pudding Media is eavesdropping on phone calls in order to display ads on the screen that are related to the conversation. Voice recognition software monitors the calls, selects ads based on what it hears and pushes the ads to the subscriber’s computer screen while he or she is still talking.

(snip)

Mr. Maislos said that during tests he noticed that the content had a tendency to determine conversations.

“The conversation was actually changing based on what was on the screen,” he said. “Our ability to influence the conversation was remarkable.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/media/24adcol.html

[meegbear]

1. And I thought G-Mail was bad ...

Holy guacamole!

[jojo54]

2. Talk about 1984!!

[Teaser]

6. to be fair

in 1984, no one was consenting to "Big Brother" as one choice among many governance options.

The rest of us can always use Skype.

[jojo54]

13. I was talking about the movie.

Sorry for the confusion.

[hobbit709]

3. You get what you pay for-TANSTAAFL

[Gman]

7. You got it

and you get what you pay for.

[saigon68]

39. And then you get Simon Jester

[Kolesar]

4. Let's see--I will make a call and put the microphone by the TV when "South Park" is on

What kind of ads will I get??

[CreekDog]

14. salty balls

[Yael]

5. Okay, that would totally creep me out

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Guess I'm not going to be their customer!

[Poll_Blind]

22. I dunno...I could see starting every call to one of my friends...

...with the preamble "My vagina has that not-so-fresh feeling." to lock the software into a product to display so that (hopefully) the rest of my communication will not be mined for keywords.

:evilgrin:

PB

[Auggie]

27. LOL!

[KansDem]

9. “Our ability to influence the conversation was remarkable.”

Are they just now figuring this out? TeeVee and radio has know this for decades...

on edit: not to mention newspapers and magazines.

[havocmom]

10. All this spying on Americans? NOT about catching 'terraists'.

Have noticed, for a couple years, spam email coming with sender names close or matching people in my very small, local population. Also, key words in subject lines very often mimic the ones in my emailed newsletters and relate to many of the internet sites I view regularly. The key words are getting more targeted and refined all the damn time.

Havocdad gets the same sorts of sender names on his mail, but the keywords in subject lines are different, and reflect what HE regularly views, newsletters he receives.

It's not about catching terrorists. It's about selling crap, oh, and getting enough goods on anybody in public life to make sure they are compliant ;)

[RainDog]

37. I've noticed this too

it's been noticeable for the last year. the spam seems like it's catching the names on outgoing and incoming mail because soon after I've emailed someone, I'll get spam with a similar name. at first I thought I was being paranoid... thanks for letting me know it's not just me. :/

I went for years w/o a tv (b.c. computers). now, I have to have a computer for work, so it's hard to get around things, even with ad blocker and spam filters. and I generally use email rather than phones for anything other than quick calls about meeting up, etc.

this whole biz is also why I think the domestic wiretapping isn't about finding terrorists as much as it's about republican dirty tricks.

[northzax]

11. and in what is truly ironic

every single post about this is on a board that uses software to tailor ads to what people are writing.

hmmm...

[Skinner]

20. Touché.

The article does in fact point out that this is basically the same thing that Google does with Gmail.

I would argue that the Google ads on DU (and elsewhere on the Internet) are not the same. The ads are served based on the content of a *public* web page. When people post on DU, they understand that the things they write are going to be immediately published publicly, for the world to see. But on a phone call (or email, for that matter) there is usually an assumption that the content of the communication is private.

To be clear, the article does say that a human will not be eavesdropping on the calls, and the calls are not saved. The "eavesdropping" is entirely done by a computer, in real-time.

But I think, in the current political climate, many people would be wary of this. We know that the government wants to eavesdrop on many citizens, and in fact does so. A phone company that is already scanning all of their calls seems awfully tempting. The company may be sincere in it's assurances of privacy, but I would not be completely confident in their ability to keep their promises.

You can be sure that the other admins and I would never use this service to discuss matters relating to Democratic Underground. :scared:

[The2ndWheel]

12. So the proof will be in the Pudding?

Ow, my side.

Certainly something worth keeping up on as we endlessly twirl around a giant ball of gas.

[snake in the grass]

15. Wow!

What an incredibly brilliant idea! Anyone care to bet on how long it will take before they file a Chapter 11?

[Poll_Blind]

16. Shit, and I thought Web 2.0 was bad.... n/t

PB

[Poll_Blind]

21. Reminds me of this piece "The Search Engine Confessional - AOL's snapshot into very private lives"

The Search Engine Confessional - AOL's snapshot into very private lives

  The above had to do with AOL inadvertently releasing logs of user searches. The material one was able to mine, even from the small (3 gigabyte, if I recall correctly) sample of their searches, was incredbily disturbing. With the ability to aggregate topics discussed with land line phone numbers, information mining has taken another frightening step toward knowing things about us that we maybe don't want companies to know.

PB

[Lone_Star_Dem]

17. I'm wondering about is how many people will be willing to permit this?

Just for the sake of getting a free phone service you'll have no privacy in your conversations at all. In my opinion, and I'm sure the opinion of many other people, that is going to be too expensive a price.

There's also the fact that this is so easily done and that they're not in the least worried about ethical problems that might arise. After all, they're in the phone business, listening in on your customers is the American way. Why shouldn't they be making an extra buck while they're doing it?

[sueh]

29. My freeper brothers-in-law would certainly go for this.

I'll bet they'd get ads from the RNC and other repub candidates based on all of the God-Jesus talk they do. But seriously, they will think this is perfectly okay. Privacy?? What is that when Jesus sees everything you do. :sarcasm:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

32. I know Republicans who won't use google because they monitor you

I know this sort of thing won't fly with them.

When it comes to US spying on citizens it's different in their eyes. They really don't think they're being monitored because they're somehow special, better than the people that such things happen to.

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. The flaw in the plan:

The people who will jump to use this service, probably don't have any money to spend.

[progressoid]

19. So, if I tend to drop the F-bomb a lot on the phone I'm going to get porn ads?

[quiet.american]

23. HOW is this legal? n/t

[northzax]

24. how would it not be legal?

it's not like they haven't notified you.

[quiet.american]

25. Yes, I thought about that after I'd posted. It's not really clear in the article though.

Just like with the DoubleClick concept when it first came to light, it doesn't seem all that clear that the consumer understands that in exchange for free phone calls, the company is monitoring all your conversations. If you actually go to the Pudding Media website, it's much more clear in their Consumer section, though in a "golly, gee whiz, this is great!" way in the best MadMen tradition.

On a different note, I still had to raise my eyebrows when I read this in the article ....Mr. Maislos founded Pudding Media with his brother, Ruben. Each had spent several years doing intelligence work for the Israeli military....

Interesting. I think I'd rather still Google for whatever it is I'm looking for.

[sueh]

26. Could Pudding Media be a cover company for the FBI or CIA??

[Richard D]

28. Anything . . .

. . . could be a cover company for the FBI or CIA. I get a kick out of the so-called encrypted sites like hushmail. If you really wanted to get the goods on someone, wouldn't it be the best idea to create a way for people to think that their communications are totally safe? Not that I'm saying hushmail is such a site, but if I were a spook, I'd be setting up things like that as fast as possible.

[fed-up]

36. looks like IDF-about the founders of the company, most appear to be from Israel

just snippets taken, go to website for full bios

http://puddingmedia.com/about_us.html


Ariel Maislos, Founder and CEO
A graduate of the prestigious Talpiot program of the Israel Defense Force (IDF), Ariel served in an elite R&D unit of the IDF, developing advanced and innovative digital communication systems.

Ruben E. Maislos, Founder and GM Israel

C, later acquired by Intel, where he gained over 8 years of experience in speech research and advanced mobile telephony platforms. Ruben has filed several patents in the field of mobile communications and speech recognition. Ruben holds a B.Sc in Math and Computer Science from Ben Gurion University.


Eran Arbel, Cofounder and VP Products

Prior to Teklee, Eran served in an elite R&D unit of the IDF, developing mission-critical networking systems.

Eyal Keren, VP Business Development

Prior to joining Pudding Media, Eyal was the Head of Business Development at A9.com, an Amazon.com company responsible for leading its strategic relationships in the internet search and advertising domains. Previously, as an investment professional at Pitango Venture Capital, Eyal led investment analysis and execution, and represented the fund in support of portfolio companies. Eyal also served in marketing management and strategic planning roles at IBM. Eyal holds an M.S degree in Information Systems, University of Rochester in New York, an M.B.A and a B.A in Economics from Tel Aviv University in Israel

[conspirator]

30. I HATE GOOGLE ADSENSE and shits like this. It's ALL VISUAL POLUTION

I hate websites who put this shit everywhere and I dont respect anyone who advertises in adsense.
Advertising on google searches is OK though.

[Gregorian]

31. I'll raise that sentiment. I hate all commercials.

I've worked to make my life commercial free for the last thirty five years.

In fact, when I was a child, I had very cool neighbors who before remote controls even existed had a long stick with a clothespin attached. When a commercial came on the tv, they didn't have to get up. They just turned down the sound with the long stick. :)

Commercials are pollution. That's why I'm listening to Resonance radio right now. And commercial free college radio. And Linktv. And I use Firefox with Adblock.

Most people are polluted and dumb. It's a sad world out there. Now take this to the next level and try using very little gasoline. Then the true colors of the world really show. But that's another discussion. One that is very much avoided.

[NYC Liberal]

40. Amen. What grates me even MORE is that now

they're increasing ticket prices at the movies - $11.00 (!!) now in NYC - and every time there's a price increase, we get more commercials before the movie. And those are before the previews!

[Dollface]

33. One could simply not look at the screen. Alternatively, I can see people trying to manipulate their

conversations to get certain ads to come up. Sounds like another drinking game.

[ima_sinnic]

34. or just turn off the monitor ...

I have a very annoying Dell flat-screen monitor that starts flashing colors very brightly if I don't turn it off separately when I turn off my computer or don't use it for a while -- what a DUHmb thing! But I am now well conditioned to turning it off when I walk away from the computer. I will never buy another one.

[fed-up]

35. phone # for company that wants to spy on your phone calls for advertising purposes

feel free to call and express your opinion about their new product...

I can't even believe that people would sign up for this service...What happened to our privacy laws? What happened to our want of privacy? I am beyond words to express how I feel about how our society has been subdued to put up with just about anything. ...

big brother is now US



http://www.demo.com/demonstrators/demo2007fall/113047.p...

408-241-1099

Conference
2007 DEMOfall
Show Contact
email
Address
4100 Moorpark Ave., Suite 201
San Jose, CA 95117
408-241-1099
Company URL
www.thepudding.com


Product Description
Soon, every call you make—from your mobile, home or computer—could be free, and you’ll see valuable information, entertainment and advertising based on relevant keywords spoken in a call. Pudding Media is building a platform to speed the transition to free calls and the proof of The Pudding is in the fun, relevant content and offers related to topics you care about.

http://puddingmedia.com /

[mcscajun]

38. "Our ability to influence the conversation was remarkable."

AAAAAIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:


"Remarkable" is not the word I'd use to describe it: Appalling, horrifying, alarming, chilling, contemptible; those are all words I would use. "Extreme behavior modification", "commercial brainwashing", "marketing-based mind-numbing" those are all phrases I would use.

There will be plenty of willing takers for this "free" service, that's the pity of it.