The new web-based calling service ThePudding.com seems at first to ring an Orwellian bell, but the advertising-supported substitute for pricey cellphone plans is only a small step away from Internet search, email and social networking systems the service’s target youthful consumer base already uses.
ThePudding is designed to scan conversations placed from one caller, dialing up through the Internet, to another caller, on a phone line or also online. The service is free if the caller agrees to allow the conversation to be scanned for key phrases or words – “vacation” or “spring break,” for example – and accepts advertisements, news and web updates that are apparently relevant to the conversation.
While some may be turned off by the idea of allowing conversations to be scanned for content, the waiting list of potential users for the beta product indicates there is an interest, if not even a demand, for such a service. Web-based, free email services and search engines already depend on user-content-determined advertising to keep services afloat – or, in the case of Google’s myriad web services, to turn a huge profit.
The generation to which ThePudding is marketing is accustomed to making trade-offs that result in forgone privacy. Homeland security and increased wiretapping by federal investigation is something we expect as a distinct possibility – and accept for the benefits of increased national security. Users of free web email services forgo complete privacy and accept targeted advertisements to keep services cheap. Users on social networking sites give away privacy by posting pictures, notes and profiles and accept sidebar ads in exchange for entertainment and social convenience.
ThePudding seems not to delve much further into personal privacy than any already existing service that taps into targeted advertising to get good rates from advertisers, develop better web services with increased revenues, expand its user base and then increase advertising profits. The web-based calling service is overt about its intentions, while the ads on something like a Yahoo! search page are marginal and more subliminal.
For adults who understand the benefits, risks and legality of services that offer a convenience and savings for what is a small privacy of invasion today, ThePudding might just be the next big thing. If not its success, at least its emergence is a sign of changing technology and new outlooks on pervasive advertising techniques.
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