Included in the email is information regarding the location of the client, who the client is, who is talking, and what they are saying. It logs all "near" conversations.
This script can be attached to an article of clothing, and it will log whatever is within a certain distance of you if you wear it, or it can be attached to a "microphone" at a certain fixed location and record all conversations within that location.
Some things I want to do:
- Create a nice looking prim based article of clothing to attach it to for player carried recordings. Maybe a watch?
- Create a nice looking static microphone object to attach it to for static recordings.
- Create a feature which listens for certain expletive words and warn a user via PM not to use those words (profanity filter maybe?) Even cue a public warning sound effect or something, that might be funny =)
- Modifiable chat log sending email addresses without a user having to manually modify the source code.
- Support for sending to multiple emails
- Support for daily chat log emails
- Web based log via secure http post
- I'll think of more
Also please not that this is for testing purposes only, and that unauthorized chat logging is a violation of privacy rights, including Second Life TOS, this cannot and should not be used without consent for all parties involved.
With that being said I would like everyone's permission on tuesday in class to run a quick stress test, maybe 1 minute in length, where people just spam the hell out of the chat. Let me know if this is possible.
7 comments:
Great job, Josh! I would recommend that you include some sort of device to get permission to log the chat. You can read the following discussion about that at http://www.knowprose.com/node/17575. It quotes the SL standards from Linden, which say,
"Second Life Community Standards, Section 4:
Disclosure
Residents are entitled to a reasonable level of privacy with regard to their Second Lives. Sharing personal information about a fellow Resident --including gender, religion, age, marital status, race, sexual preference, and real-world location beyond what is provided by the Resident in the First Life page of their Resident profile is a violation of that Resident's privacy. Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums."
I have a big question about this... is it possible that others have already developed such technologies and are in fact recording conversations/actions occuring in SL? How would we know? This already occurs in the RL... online, on phones, GPS tracking, digital tracking of our purchases, etc. We have far less privacy in the RL than most of us are aware, so what's to say it's more secure in SL? Is there a way for Linden to police this or do we just have to go on faith?
Interesting comment, Donna. I suppose we have no more assurance that "someone" isn't listening in as we have that Linden Labs themselves aren't recording everything for their own for-profit reasons. I mean, can you imagine what some companies would pay for the kind of data they could easily harvest????
Of course it's been done before. There is no originality left in the world! But seriously, this has many uses, mostly for security purposes. You ARE allowed to use a chatlogger if you provide the person with information that they are being recorded, if it is in a static environment that you own. So I could monitor what's being said in my house for example, and if I wanted to be safe I could offer a note card to any person who walks into my area that tells them that they are being recorded. They then have a choice to either converse somewhere else or accept the fact that they are being recorded.
Donna, if you can do it you can bet that others are doing it as well.
Why do you think that CIA and FBI have islands of their own in SL? to play games? I don't think so. As you say we have very little privacy, if any, in RL since our email and phone conversations are monitored for key words.
Even more scary is the report by the Washington Post Thursday, February 7, 2008; Page A01 about the current practice of randomly confiscating computers and cellphones as you leave or come-in the US (by air) . You must provide your passwords (any that you might have) and they keep the computer and cellphone for 10 or 15 days, although in many cases they have not been returned for over a year with no explanation whatsoever. You will not be able to take the flight (or come in) if you don't agree to that.
According to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman, they do not engage in racial profiling "in any way, shape or form."
Curiously though, the majority of people that have had their computer and cellphone confiscated (none of which have been charged with anything!) tend to have darker skin, slanted eyes or other features not associated with the white race, (which as we know does not engage in any criminal activity?-|). To be fair to the spooks some white folks have suffered such affront as well.
Although this is a conversation that might be outside of the limits of this post, it has to do of course with privacy and what it is that WE are trying to protect, and what it is that THEY are trying to control. There is a BIG difference between going through your suitcase that might contain a bomb, and going through all your files which might contain, oh horror!, IDEAS. When this happens it is time to take serious note.
Like Harry Truman said half a century ago "Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."
Going back to Josh's request to have all our conversations and or chats recorded with OUR CONSENT I do not have a problem with that. I'll just watch my big mouth!8-)
I have a question about the idea of attaching the scripts to something like a watch. Before trying to record the conversation among people, getting permission would be an important part if security or protection of personal privacy is taken into consideration seriously for this project. In this case, will it be a little hard to implement by wearing a watch? If we put a sensor or whatever the object carrying the script is inside a specific area, it's pretty easy to inform others by putting a sign or giving a greeting message telling that this area is being recorded. But what about carrying that sensor, wandering around some public space? Is it ok we just shout like, "I'm carrying something that would record all the conversation NEAR me. If anyone doesn't want to be recored, don't talk to anyone or stay way from the avatar?"
Or, is it possible not to record all the dialog NEAR the avatar but only a set of people who had admitted to be recorded?
Adding support in script for a user to consent before recording is trivial at this point.
Post a Comment