Sounds like the germ of a Black Mirror episode. “I know you did it Steve, I can hear her scream, endlessly”
Tho, it being the internet of shite, it’d probably just BSoD and start the kettle.
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That’s why my friend always uses Bing for his murder schemes.
No one uses that…
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Ships everything you need to your home within 2 business days.
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You’re wrong to be disappointed. She would not have saved herself by taking those actions, which do not affect the info logged by Google’s server. When the law serves Google with a summons for relevant searches, Google can (and will [and, legally, must]) give up all the searches run from the IP addresses that her ISP says she has been using.
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That’s mildly terrifying.
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Its very common. I can think of half a dozen murder cases in the last five years where the offender basically outlined their plans in google searches.
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She could just say she couldn’t remember the name of that Shonda Rhimes show…
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Can the police find out whether she clicked “I’m feeling lucky?”
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Oops. I meant that it is mildly terrifying that all of my Google queries are just sitting there, accessible from any computer in which I happen to be logged in. Time to switch to DuckDuckGo, maybe.
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My software job basically involves hacking google. The only way to hide your thoughts from the world is to never, ever, post it into an application of any kind. Software these days is highly interconnected. The Internet is basically a mesh of APIs (application programming interfaces) with a smattering of user data. Even if you think you can hide from google behind a front end, your browser and the operating system it sits in could be giving you away.
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Alexa, please order 20 liters of bleach, a hacksaw, and 3 packs of industrial strength garbage bags.
…if you spend another $2.99 you’ll qualify for free expedited shipping.
OK, throw in 2 rolls of duct tape.
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further proof that “Just google it” is terrible and short sighted advice
And if that wasn’t bad enough the District Attorney was able to flip Siri in exchange for not naming her as an accomplice.
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That’s the real reason that Ask Jeeves had to retire.
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I’m betting that she forgot to lock in her question with quotation marks, and thus the Google search accidentally directed her to a page with instructions on “how to kill someone and get caught” …
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We are so close to the classical SF scenario where a computer with a natural language interface develops sentience on its own. I would love to know how the back end of these systems handles its user data.
The blocker, I think, is a hard coded user interface. Google home responds appropriately if I say “see you later” but that is surely built in. I wonder what would happen if the hacks are removed one day and the machine learning takes over entirely.
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Whenever I read stories like this, I think about my browser history and think about how it could be misconstrued if I was to be unexpectedly accused of a crime and shudder. Sometimes I get curious about issues relating to the criminal justice system, the current state of forensics, and human biology. Individually they’d probably be seen as innocent, but in the context of a crime, together… uh oh. And if I were going to commit a crime, I’d be making at least some effort at hiding my tracks, which means it’s more likely there will be incriminating stuff in my browser history if I’m innocent…
You could probably find all the information you would need on committing the perfect crime via Google - you’re just not going to find it if your search strings are as basic as “how do I commit the perfect crime.”
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Based on your recent purchase you may also be interested in the following…
- clear plastic tarps
- lye
- wood chipper
- fake moustache
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This is why I try to say please and thank-you to Alexa and Siri these days. I want to be on the “good human” list…
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