A software product sold to protect children from predators, cyberbullying, and visiting inappropriate Web sites is also collecting information about what the kids are saying, and its publisher is selling that data--in aggregate form--to other companies for marketing purposes.
In an interview, Echometrix CEO Jeffrey Greene said that the company doesn't collect or report the names or any identifying information about the children. "We never, ever, ever can identify who the kid is who is saying it. In fact, we don't have any information about the individual child," he said.
Box shot of Sentry Parental Controls from company Web site
(Credit: Echometrix)The company's Sentry Parental Control Software, according to Greene, is designed to warn parents if a child is engaged in inappropriate online behavior by analyzing a database of 29,000 words including what he calls "Weblish," slang terms like POS (parent over shoulder) that kids use as short cuts in instant messaging and chat rooms. To do this, said Greene, it's necessary for the company to capture this information so "we can monitor these kids and the conversations they are having and the things they are seeing and all the words that are coming to them and all the words they're sending out, so we can make decisions and identify questionable activities and let mom and dad know about it right now--in real time."
In addition to notifying parents if their kids are doing something questionable, the company also sells summary data based on this information--in the aggregate--to other companies. A press release on its Web site describes a product called Pulse "that reads digital content from multiple sources across the Web, including: instant messages, blogs, social environment communities, forums, and chat rooms." The company says that it delivers the unsolicited raw conversations in real time. It gives marketers immediate, unique information about what teens are saying in their own words."
Greene says that the service can let companies "in real time, find out what the kids are saying about your product and all your competitors' products...I can't tell you who said it, I can only just tell you that a lot of kids said it."
Greene said that the company does provide a disclosure to parents as well as a way for parents to opt out, but the information in its end-user license agreement is written in the typical legalese and is a bit contradictory. In one section, it says "SearchHelp (recently renamed Echometrix) does not read or disclose private communications except to comply with a valid legal process such as a search warrant, to protect the company's rights and property," but in another it says "We have a parent's permission to share the information if the user is a child under age 13. Parents have the option of allowing SearchHelp to collect and use their child's information without consenting to SearchHelp sharing of this information with people and companies who may use this information for their own purposes."
At my request, the company provided a link to a Web page where parents can opt out of the collection process.
Spyware?
David Perry of TrendMicro, which includes parental control tools in some of its security products, said he isn't aware of any other parental control products that capture this type of information. "This is a severe case of what we used to call spyware," he said. Perry worries that even though the software may not collect the names of the children, "those names could be included in some of the chat messages."
Taking Greene at his word, and assuming that the company carefully avoids sending out identifiable information, I still can't shake the creepy feeling that I get about any product that collects any information from children, especially in the name of child protection.
Listen to my interview with Echometrix CEO Jeffrey Greene
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I know many people have strong feelings about euthanasia. And who am I to suggest that old people have few uses?
However, who is Michael Amatrudo to put his parents up for sale on Craigslist?
According to NBC New York, Amatrudo's wife is used to his sense of humor. You might conclude, though, that she has suffered enough. For her loving husband decided, just for a little fun, to put his parents up for sale on America's most useful human exchange.
Amatrudo's ad was a poem to filial love: "I got lots of use out of these guys over the past 50 years, but it's time to move on," he wrote. "Will consider trade for newer model, hot blonde under age 40 or an Erector Set in good condition. MUST SEE! Please email or call Michael for additional details and pics. $155.00 OBO."
This being America, the most tasteful of Madison, Conn.'s, residents claims he received many replies to his kind offer.
This picture was taken in Madison, Ct. But I do not believe these are the parents in question.
(Credit: CC Faeryboots/Flickr)Well, he was wise enough to list Ed and Arlene Amatrudo as being in "excellent overall condition and still plenty of life left in them."
While he claims he was touched by those who wrote to him suggesting that really good parents are, indeed, a very rare commodity, one has to wonder about Amatrudo's psyche.
You see, according to the Associated Press, Amatrudo is a 51-year-old insurance executive.
And he told NBC New York that his motivation for the ad was that he was bored. So I ventured to LinkedIn to see if I could discover more about this man.
Well, I could only find the one Michael Amatrudo, who appears to have spent 23 years with the same insurance company, Aon Re.
Should this be the gentleman concerned, everything is surely explained. How else can a man who has spent so much of his life with one insurance company make himself laugh other than to try selling his parents on Craigslist? Watching old Monty Python sketches just has no effect any more.
One can only wonder whether his parents cut him out of their will. You know, just for fun.
How could he put them up for sale for $155? They had to be worth at least $200. Typical insurance company undervaluation.
When Googlies are clever enough to name their latest, most wonderful brainchild "Goggles," you wonder why it is they have no idea what to call their human children.
Jason Morrison, whose LinkedIn page describes him as a search quality strategist at Google, has begun to conduct a worldwide Internet search for a high-quality name to adorn his and his wife's unborn child.
Please, yes, I know I like a joke or two when the world's winds are against me, but this is serious.
On his own personal, very personal Web site, Jason declares: "We've perused baby name Web sites and tried the Freakonomics tactic of predicting popular names, but to be honest, none of it was really working."
I'm a little confused. Is this the Freakonomics tactic that's related to the world's current financial "am I wearing underpants" moment?
And it's hard to tell just what wasn't working for Jason and his wife. Were their chosen methods all suggesting Jim for a boy and Alanis for a girl?
All one can be sure of is that Mr. Morrison is conducting a poll, asking for any and all suggestions, though his site offers a shortlist from which visitors can vote. This shortlist includes Asma for a girl (um, breathing difficulties, anyone?) and Dylan for a boy (isn't Sean Penn's daughter called Dylan?).
Mr. Morrison doesn't offer us any of the personal clues that would make the chances of helping this forlorn couple so much more possible. However, you will be discombobulated to hear that he is taking the opportunity of his child emerging into this uncertain world to sell you some Google products:
"In the next couple days, I'll also put up a live graph of the results. If you'd like to learn how to use Google Docs and Spreadsheets to put a poll on your site (or name your baby), check out this post." (No, I won't be linking you to a Google Docs and Spreadsheets site.)
Fear not, though, Mr. Morrison is not another humorless, marble-free techie. For he ends his plaintive Internet cry with these words: "We're expecting a baby November 16th, and we need help choosing a name. This is a difficult decision that will have a huge impact on the life of an innocent human being. Naturally, we are turning to random Internet strangers for help."
Strangely for a Googlie, Mr. Morrison is not going to trust in the word of the masses, if they choose something that he and his wife deem unsuitable: "We do reserve the right to ignore the results of the poll completely. Otherwise, we'll end up with a kid named Mr. Splashy Pants. Actually, that has a nice ring to it..."
My vote: Larry if it's a boy and Page if it's a girl. What do you say?
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