Ahh Google Now, how I love the; let me count the ways.
Android Police have a cracker of a rumour that there’s a reasonable amount of evidence to support. Google now will soon(ish) have cards in place to remind you to pay your bills. Everything from your power bill, the dreaded credit card, mobile phone as a starting point. These days with most large companies offering API interfaces into billing systems (even if it’s read only) there’s a seemingly endless list of possibilities here.
At this time, the evidence in the APK teardown conducted by AP suggests that it’s a reminder only service that will probably need some configuration on the part of users. They’ve captured code from the APK showing plenty of evidence that either Google are already scanning our bills and bank accounts *gulp*…
Or they’re working towards another useful service that will be build into Google Now.
private boolean hasAccountNumber;
private boolean hasAmountDue;
private boolean hasBusinessData;
private boolean hasCategory;
private boolean hasDueDate;
private boolean hasLastAmountDue;
private boolean hasMinimumAmountDue;
private boolean hasPayUrl;
For a full rundown of the code grabs, see the Android Police Article.
I’m not sure I’d want my friends seeing what bills I have outstanding, so this may be a turning point for some users to either add a lock code to their phone or never hand their phone to friends again.
Would you use a bill reminder service built into Google Now, or is this a step too far into private data by Google?
