Do you want Google near your voice mail?
I know I don’t.
Over the past few days the relaunch of GrandCentral as Google Voice has generated a robust discussion about what Google is planning to do with voice. Thoughts range from Google building a standalone SOHO voice offering to Google using Google voice to bolster other offerings.
But there’s one thought that keeps popping-up. It’s the idea that Google voice will eventually provide the ability to derive context from your voice calls and voice mail for the purposes of archiving and retrieval at a later date.
Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but the thought that someone has the ability to scan my phone calls and voice mails is scary. Especially an advertising company like Google.
It’s bad enough advertisers can find out way too much about me through social networks – I’ll pass on having them be able to “target my phone conversations.”
What’s even scarier about this is that there are people out there who want this sort of capability. That’s sort of like asking the government for a wire tap so that you can listen to your calls at a later date (and so too can they).
Perhaps most people just don’t get that there is always a business reason behind companies offering feature sets they’d be a little more cautious of what they asked for.
Then again maybe people want their phone call interrupted by an ad. They’re comfortable giving up their privacy in exchange for a “sweet new feature” that they don’t have to pay for.
I’m not. That’s why I want Google far away from my voice mail. How about you?


