Google acquires Emu: Opens up potential for snooping on your chats

Adding to its long list of acquisitions, Google has now acquired Emu - a messaging app that comes with a built-in virtual assistant created by a veteran of Apple’s Siri team. Google plans to shut down Emu on August 25 and the app will no longer be available to its existing users. [caption id=“attachment_228600” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Google can now snoop on your chats[/caption] The app is capable of scheduling appointments to your calendar, setting reminders and even making reservations at a restaurant directly from your conversations. Besides, Emu has added features like location sharing and reminders to text messaging. This means, it is basically built to gauge your conversation and act accordingly.   Needless to say, Google’s acquisition aims at sprucing up Hang0uts that the company has turned into its communication hub. Knowing the possibility that messaging has the potential of becoming what emails have been so far, it seems just the right move. Having said that, it also paves way for Google to now snoop on your chats. We cannot rule out this possibility as Emu has a built-in system that monitors chats and infers what people are talking about. This could help Google insert relevant ad links.   Now, Emu hasn’t been using its technology to insert any such ads, and simply identifies information that can be useful to users. It should be noted that Google mines your search terms as well as emails, but chats have been off the hook so far. With this new acquisition, it will now snoop over your chats too.   We also cannot rule out the possibility that Google may simply use this newly acquired technology for its Android devices to snoop on the incoming and outgoing messages. A report by Wired points out, “Google’s Android mobile operating system could also benefit from the deal. Emu’s technology could monitor not just Hangouts but also incoming text messages on Android phones and use the phone’s full capabilities—its calendar access, contact list, location data, and so forth—to be even more helpful to users. Hafsteinsson designed such a system in his two years at Apple, when he was a manager on the Siri virtual iPhone assistant.”   Emu’s co-founder and CEO Gummi Hafsteinsson had spent five years at Google before founding Emu, and is known to have built the platform when he working with Apple as the manager on the Siri virtual iPhone assistant.   On its home page, Emu team writes, “We’re super-excited. But to focus on our next chapter, we have to close the last one. As of August 25, 2014, we’ll be shutting down the Emu app. It will no longer be available in the App Store, and existing users won’t be able to send, receive, or download messages. We know it’s an inconvenience, and we regret that.”   While Emu’s technology is aimed at convenience and simplifying communication, events and reminders, it is also a huge threat to privacy.