Look, I won't do any rabble-rousing about a tech dystopia in the future. We are very much living in that tech dystopia where your emotions are a hot commodity. Apple, being the richest of 'em all, wants a price of your emotions, too. Quite literally so, I'm afraid.
Apple is reportedly developing a feature that lets you log in your emotional state into the Health app. Over time, the app will create an emotional profile of users, and will also suggest mental wellness exercises such as meditation. Here's an excerpt from the original Bloomberg report:
"The initial version of the emotion tracker will let users log their mood, answer questions about their day and compare the results over time."
But Apple ain't stopping there. Down the road, Apple will also monitor your speech for emotional data and whatever you type on your phone to create a more precise profile.
And here's the cool part – emotion tracking will arrive later this year, likely with the iOS 17 update that will be introduced at WWDC in June, and released in Fall season.
"Apple will totally not sell that data to a nearby psychiatrist or push related products through ads on your nearest Apple device," said NO ONE.
ON A RELATED NOTE
Last year, Zoom – no human's favorite video calling app – was planning an advanced tool for the emotional monitoring and assessment of users. Groups like Fight for the Future, the ACLU, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center lambasted it publicly.
Amazon says it won't sell your fitness data from the Halo fitness band, but it will mine every bit of it for "improvement, research, and development." This is the same company whose Alexa assistant recorded intimate moments of users via an Echo speaker.
TikTok also launched a feature called "Focus Tracking" last year that will show ads to users if its super-secret algorithm determines that you are "emotionally engaged."
It was only in June of 2021 that Microsoft ended a facial tracking system that analysed users' emotions. But as of July 2022, as. according to this Protocol report, Microsoft and Amazon were still using emotion-tracking AI in a "limited capacity."
In partnership with Classroom Technologies, Intel developed an AI tech for monitoring kids via Zoom. If you look bored in maths class, the AI will snitch on you, and your parents will whoop yo ass later that day!
In October 2022, the UK's information commission warned companies against "emotional analysis" tech because it was deemed "unscientific."
Let's see if Apple does any better. But if I were you, I wouldn't buy Apple's idea of helping you emotionally, especially after it robbed you financially, for that shiny iPhone.