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Google boss turns Wave demise into success of sorts

'We're watching you - get used to it'

Grave new world

To underline Google’s stance, Schmidt told the Techonomy audience that society needed to adapt to and accept the level of data that’s now increasingly available online.

"There was five exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003," he said. "But that much information is now created every two days, and the pace is increasing ... People aren't ready for the technology revolution that's going to happen to them."

Rather disturbingly, the Google boss also spoke about looking at messaging and locations using artificial intelligence.

"We can predict where you are going to go," he said.

"Show us 14 photos of yourself and we can identify who you are. You think you don't have 14 photos of yourself on the internet? You've got Facebook photos! People will find it's very useful to have devices that remember what you want to do, because you forgot ... But society isn't ready for questions that will be raised as result of user-generated content."

But to Schmidt at least, “true transparency and no anonymity” is the future.

"In a world of asynchronous threats, it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you. We need a [verified] name service for people. Governments will demand it." ®

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