Google Is Watching, Perhaps Soon in Your Home InformationWeek (07/11/08) Claburn, Thomas
as it appeared in the July 21, 2008 edition of ACM TechNews.
A recent paper, co-authored by Google researcher Bill N. Schilit and computer scientists Jeonghwa Yang from the Georgia Institute of Technology and David W. McDonald from the University of Washington, proposes "home activity recognition," a system that would track people's activities at home through home network interactions. "Activity recognition is a key feature of many ubiquitous computing applications ranging from office worker tracking to home health care," the paper says. "In general, activity recognition systems unobtrusively observe the behavior of people and characteristics of their environments, and, when necessary, take actions in response--ideally with little explicit user direction." Home monitoring could be used to remind people to perform forgotten tasks, help them remember information, or encourage them to act more safely. However, the concept raises several privacy questions, including how the data will be protected, who will have access to the data, and what will prevent the data from being subpoenaed or stolen. The paper provides a sample of the type of data that could be collected, similar to a Web history log that records the use of devices attached to a home network. "Going forward we are eager to find alternative sources for interaction event capture," the paper says. "Rather than just waiting for the desktop operating systems to accommodate user activity tracking, we see the Web platform as a potential shortcut to a friendlier environment for activity capture." Click Here to View Full Article
