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September 26, 2007
Shorter Pudding VoIP Premise: What's the Fourth Amendment Between Friends?
Pudding's been getting buzz for a few days.
Nutshell: Free VoIP, like Skype, only it will listen to your conversation for keywords and present contextual ads.
For one: Ew.
For two: Please do not ever call me using this service.
For three: Listen to your friends at the EFF who say this has ramifications way beyond the simple squick factor -- it could undermine your Fourth Amendment rights:
Perhaps the most chilling implication of this "service" is its potential impact on your constitutional right to privacy in your phone calls. Fourth Amendment protections against government eavesdropping rely on your having a "reasonable expectation of privacy" in your calls, something you'll arguably be trading away by using ThePudding.com's VoIP service. The government can and likely will argue -- as it has argued when it comes to your Gmail, in the case of U.S. v. Warshak -- that allowing a company to scan your communications for ad-serving purposes eliminates any Fourth Amendment privacy protections in those communications. Far from being "free", you may be paying for ThePudding.com's service with your constitutional rights.
Nice. And a handy rebuttal to the usual crowd of melonheads who show up to say "I traded away my privacy to Gmail a long time ago and I feel fine, ya chicken littles!"
Posted by mhall at 3:42 PM | Add Comment
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