Eric Schmidt: Google's Policy Is To 'Get Right Up To The Creepy Line' (VIDEO)

Google CEO Eric Schmidt offered a look at how Google approaches its users and how he sees technology shaping our behavior in the years to come at the Washington Ideas Forum, an event held late last week.

Google's policy, he explained, is to get as close as possible to the "creepy" line without going past it.

"There is what I call the creepy line," he said, according to The Hill. "The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it."

Schmidt was asked by The Atlantic's James Bennet about the possibility of Google developing a kind of "implant" in the future.

"I would argue that implanting something in your brain is beyond the creepy line," he replied, according to The Hill's transcript, "at least for the moment, until the technology gets better."

He remarked that Google's culture is such that he would know if such a technology were in development, but that, "As far as I know, we do not have a medical lab working on implants." He added, "As far as I know. I will check after this."

As for how Google will serve its users, he noted, "With your permission you give us more information about you, about your friends, and we can improve the quality of our searches...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 now what you're thinking about."

Bennet also asked Schimdt about his concept of "augmented humanity," which Schmidt described at the recent TechCrunch Disrupt conference, and asked the CEO about how people will interact with computers in the future.

"Ultimately, if you take this forward some decades, it's obvious that the computers will be our assistants, that they will wander around with us, if you will, they'll know where we are, they'll care what we're doing," Schmidt said. "They'll be able to track all these kinds of things...This means, for example, you don't need to remember as much as you used to."

Learn more about Schmidt's vision of the future.

WATCH: via The Atlantic

Comments

[Andy17]

02:15 PM on 11/16/2010

why would anyone think this company is better than the rest?
because the billionare owner wears torn jeans?

[Tunghoy]

12:27 AM on 10/07/2010

At least now I know what Google will have on its front page next April Fool's Day. It's certainly more realistic than their toilet network.

[combot1]

10:32 PM on 10/06/2010

Every time I hear the Google name now it gives me the creeps.

[bessielil]

06:40 PM on 10/06/2010

Can a company whose motto was "Don't be Evil" have an undulating creepy line?

[JuanGuapo]

04:35 PM on 10/06/2010

What cracks me up is how people instinctively distrust Google yet hand their information over to Facebook and Twitter without a second thought. Google's problem with privacy is they are more up front about it than other tech companies and it scares ppl--yet they never question how other companies handle their information. The Q&A usually goes like this...

How does Bing handle your searches? I don't know.
How secure is your yahoo mail? I don't know.
How does Facebook handle your privacy? I don't know.

Then Google says "...this is what we do..how we do it..and how we protect it.." and ppl get spooked. I'm not saying Google is a benevolent host but at least the most up-front of all companies about their privacy policies.

[truenortherner]

02:44 PM on 10/06/2010

The sad truth is that Google is just telling us what all the other internet-based companies are doing anyway.

[mcamp52]

12:26 PM on 10/06/2010

Dude, with a face like that, you done crossed the creepy line.

[Carouser]

03:29 AM on 10/06/2010

Even though taking down the images is something that good taste would surely dictate, doesn’t assaulting our unsuspecting eyeballs with gory spy-cam photos then, as if it had never happened, clearing the evidence from all their records, make it even more creepy, in a way, even ghastly? Which is to wonder, if Google, the most popular portal to accessing all the world’s knowledge, is hiding the mounting evidence of their, well, creepiness from us… isn’t the next logical step to ask what else they may be hiding, albeit more successfully?

http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2010/10/users-of-google-maps-use-street-view-to-see-dead-bodies/

[Jeanms 247]

01:04 PM on 10/05/2010

Honestly, I see this as a necessary evil. Few corporations are pushing as strongly for technological advancement. So if google has to become really creepy for me to become a cyborg, so be it

[Tunghoy]

12:24 AM on 10/07/2010

Resistance is futile!

[Mermaids daddyo]

10:26 AM on 10/05/2010

Every time I see schmidt's face I get the creeps..

[Charles Keledjian]

10:04 AM on 10/05/2010

Erich Schmidt: "We know where you are. We know where you've been. We can more or less now what you're thinking about."

That just crossed MY creepy line right there....

[1566Vortex]

09:07 AM on 10/05/2010

Dude, we are way past creepy, why stop now? Brain implants are just an inch left or right of the earbug phone. No big.

[Nick Anthony]

04:46 AM on 10/05/2010

Google went from being an adorable little Mogwai to a huge, mutated six foot tall evil Gremlin with razer sharp claws and a ruthless "k!ill 'em all" mentality. The water and food fed to Google after midnight was a plate of Selling Out and a nice big glass of Make More Money No Matter Matter What.

[ASKJDOG]

04:01 AM on 10/05/2010

ok.. no offense intended (perhaps), as I think Google is an amazing company, but if he didn't look so creepy then those words coming out of his mouth wouldn't be so unnerving. Wait scrap that, because next thing you know we'll have some charismatic hollywood type being the spokesperson.

[Misothorny]

03:19 AM on 10/05/2010

"The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it."

Google translation: "We're going to push the bounds of creepy as fast as possible, but we won't implant anything in you're brain...until you're ready."



"With your permission you give us more information about you, about your friends, and we can improve the quality of our searches...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 [now] what you're thinking about."

Dude sounds like the Outer Limits..but more creepy.

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear........"