Are We Really Shocked Apple Inc. (AAPL) Wants to Read Our Minds?

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So Apple Inc. (AAPL) just bought a company that wants to read your mind. Emotient Inc. uses artificial intelligence technology to interpret people’s facial expressions and deduce what emotions they might be feeling.

Are We Really Shocked Apple Inc. (AAPL) Wants to Read Our Minds?Please do not display signs of surprise.

Silicon Valley heavyweights, namely Alphabet Inc (GOOG, GOOGL) and Facebook Inc (FB), have been developing and utilizing tools to read users’ facial features for some time now.

Upload a picture of you and a few friends to Facebook, and you’ll notice it almost always recommends you tag those same friends in the picture … because it recognizes them.

Somehow it seems like that makes sense for Facebook, but why would Apple need this sort of tech? Well, it’s keeping tight-lipped in that respect, but we do know a little bit about what Emotient itself has done in the past.

Shoppers & Doctors

Emotient Inc.’s technology has been used by retailers to read the emotions of shoppers as they scan aisles, and doctors have used it to measure the pain levels of patients who don’t express themselves well.

It’s difficult to say just how Apple would utilize this tech. One can imagine, though, that perhaps it will be built into FaceTime, an Apple feature that lets you video chat with other Apple users. Or perhaps it could be built into future iterations of the Apple Watch, or even the iPhone.

Imagine your timepiece scanning your face and telling you: “You look tired today, maybe you should take a nap when you get home.” A little creepy, yes? But not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

After all, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has been entirely candid about this age of digital morality, saying “Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.” And as far as Apple and its desire to read your mind is concerned, frankly, it’s behind the times. Schmidt frankly admitted the following more than five years ago, back in 2010:

“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 know what you’re thinking about.”

With these sorts of low standards already set, Apple isn’t doing anything unusual with its Emotient pickup. Even if the psychologist whose research was used to create the software is concerned that it could be used to interpret people’s emotions without their consent — or even misread their emotions — that won’t stop the company from doing its thing.

At the end of the day, Apple just wants to acquire more and better data, which it can then monetize. While CEO Tim Cook may publicly denounce such practices, actions speak louder than words, and with the purchase of Emotient, the public can very clearly read the company’s poker face.

It may be years before this acquisition becomes monetizable, but my hunch is that one day it will be — with our consent or without it. That could be a big win for AAPL stock holders, but will certainly be another sacrifice for those of us who value privacy.

As of this writing, John Divine was long AAPL stock. You can follow him on Twitter at @divinebizkid or email him at editor@investorplace.com.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2016/01/apple-inc-aapl-emotient/.

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