Accelerometers in Smart Phones Might Be Useful for Spying

Georgia Tech researchers have paved the way for spy agencies and dark world hackers to obtain keystroke information from smart phones lying on user's desks next to their computers. As the user types the phone bounces on the desk just enough to be detected by the smart phone's accelerometers. This information is then used to deduce keystrokes. The system isn't perfect, but under certain conditions about 80% of keystrokes are deduced correctly. With repeated data collection, passwords can then be obtained.

Obviously, the phone must first be compromised, but any downloaded app could contain the key logging code.

More on Google's Rights to Your Privacy

Perhaps the best article I've seen pointing out the intellectual deficiencies of Eric Schmidt's views on private information is "Eric Schmidt's privacy policy is one scary philosophy -- Offhand comments by Schmidt about privacy hints that Google is spying, critics say" by Julie Bort and posted on networkworld.com. I'll quote just one of over a dozen of Julie's stinging points:

"...If you don't want to share with people what you've eaten for lunch, maybe you shouldn't eat it..."

One thing that is good about this tempest that started December 8th: The subject is hot, and the ferment will almost certainly result in multiple academic papers that prove beyond any doubt that Schmidt's position is false, destructive, misleading, self-serving, or all of the above. Just in researching this short article I encountered a multitude of well-stated, rational arguments that rapidly lay the foundation for such a paper.

Commentators on this posting should post their addresses, home phone numbers, and most recent sexual liason's name in their posting, please.