Told You He Was Creepy

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in an interview with Atlantic editor James Bennet:

“The average American doesn’t realize how much of the laws are written by lobbyists” to protect incumbent interests, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Atlantic editor James Bennet at the Washington Ideas Forum. “It’s shocking how the system actually works.”

That’s a succinct — and non-partisan — assessment that sounds exactly right to me.

But then:

“Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it,” he said. Google implants, he added, probably crosses that line.

At the same time, Schmidt envisions a future where we embrace a larger role for machines and technology. “With your permission you give us more information about you, about your friends, and we can improve the quality of our searches,” he said. “We don’t need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.”

Somebody needs remedial “creepy line awareness” training.

★ Monday, 4 October 2010