Privacy and security are two issues that have really snowballed recently, between the concerns with Facebook and Google’s privacy policies, and the outrage over the NSA’s disregard for citizen’s rights.  Most people are annoyed one way or the other, some are angry, and still others are indifferent.  Lauren McCarthy is one of the very few people who saw an opportunity, and last week the artist and software developer released an iOS app named Crowdpilot.  The purpose of Crowdpilot is to let people listen in on your phone calls— and text advice during the call.  During a call, the app offers three options, allow Facebook friends to listen and type, open the call to the general public, or pay $0.99 to have a group of workers on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing service listen in on the call.  The user can also sort the call into different categories, like business, date, or family.  “I see the possibility of having this networked hivemind that weighs in on your decisions, like having a ‘wingman’ in a bar.”  Says McCarthy.

Each user is responsible for letting everyone on the call know that the other Crowdpilot users are listening in, but obviously the honor system will not work in every case.  The app is also unable to be run in the background, limiting it’s use as a spy tool.
On Twitter, the responses range from calling it “the worst idea in the whole universe,” to “a raw, honest glimpse of the very near future.”

Despite the already growing interest in the app, McCarthy stated that she isn’t looking to profit from it in any way, and any fees paid go directly Amazon’s Turk workers.  She considers the project solely a social experiment.

Read more on the story at Forbes.