Google Glass glasses with NeuroSky MindWave neurointerface for brain EEG



September 24, 2019 it became known that Facebook bought the developer of neural interfaces CTRL-Labs . Google Glasses are compatible with the NeuroSky EEG monitor through the open-source MindRDR application. On July 16, 2019, startup Ilona Mask introduced the revolutionary Neuralink neural interface . Elon Musk claims "real transhuman goals in the long run."



This news indicates in which direction the industry is heading. Including Internet companies that receive the main profit from showing targeted advertising taking into account the interests of the user. To determine these interests, they make a massive collection of data, tracking the user's actions on the Internet, his profile and social graph, contacts and calls, physical movements, shopping in stores, texts of personal messages, etc. But this is not enough.



So far, EEG scanners and implants are very limited in functionality, but technology is developing rapidly. Now it is possible to recognize basic emotions, some unspoken words and mental attempts to make physical movement - all this is based on the results of a brain activity scan.



Scientists have found similarities in how different people’s brains process information , so they can make rude assumptions about a person’s thoughts based on his brain’s activity.



Clinical brain-computer interfaces should help people regain control of their limbs or control prostheses. Inexpensive headsets are positioned as relaxation tools or entertainment gadgets. However, companies have already begun experimenting with EEG to evaluate advertising performance .



Facebook and startups like Neuralink are developing a new generation of neural technology and making bold promises. For example, Facebook promises to implement typing by the power of thought , and Elon Musk anticipates the merger of the human brain with AI .



All of these devices generate a huge amount of neural data - potentially one of the most sensitive forms of personal information.



On September 10, 2019, the Royal Society of London published a 106-page report on the prospects and risks of neurotechnology . They predict that a “neural revolution" will happen in the coming decades.



The main problem is that brain data can be commercialized. Advertisers are already using confidential information about people's preferences, habits, and location. Adding neural data to the mix will seriously increase the threat to privacy, scientists say.





Accessing data directly from the brain will be a real paradigm shift. If Facebook, for example, combines neural data with its extensive collection of personal data, then it can create “much more accurate and comprehensive psychographic profiles,” says Marcello Ienca from Zurich's Swiss Higher Technical School.



Experts believe that now there are few real levers to prevent companies from trading neural profiles in the United States (see the review of international legislation on this subject).

Neuromarketing

Commercial exploitation of neural profiles is a clear promise of “neuromarketing,” a new industry in marketing research that uses brain scans to understand consumers better than they understand themselves.



By non-invasively recording the bioelectrical activity of the brain ( electroencephalogram ), neuromarketologists monitor the brain's response to viewing ads , per second. In the future, they hope that the technology will also allow tracking brain activity while using applications, communicating on the Internet, watching movies and programs.



This will maximize the effectiveness of advertising and other methods of influencing the audience.



Of course, such technologies will be applied not only in the advertising industry. In a recent interview, Edward Snowden explained that technology giants are a tool in the hands of even more powerful players: “We see how authoritarianism is growing all over the world, and the reality is that all this is part of the same threat, these companies function like weapons governments. Of course, you can worry about this [about corporate surveillance], but it’s too simple to say that companies are a real threat, while all of them are part of the same threat, ”he said.



Ethics experts fear that information from the brain may be used to discriminate against people - for example, if they exhibit patterns of brain activity similar to patterns observed in people with a tendency to addiction, depression or neurological diseases. Perhaps, on the basis of such scans, employers will refuse to hire, insurance companies will increase the cost of insurance, and banks will offer loans on less favorable terms. “The future we are striving for is a world in which our neural data, which we do not even have access to, can be used against us,” said Tim Brown, a researcher at the Center for Neurotechnology, University of Washington.



Human thoughts are the last frontier of the defense of privacy, because previous battles have been unconditionally lost, skeptics say.

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