Customer service chats are able to show whatever you type as you type it, even if you don’t send it or change it.

Before the customer clicks the “Send message” button, you have a chance to see in real time what the customer is typing. This gives you more time to prepare an answer or solution to the customer’s problem. Customers will appreciate your quick and precise answers.

As long as “real time chat” is clearly disclosed, I don’t really see a problem with this. But it sounds like it’s not clearly disclosed in most cases.

Chat bubble icon made by Fermam Aziz from www.flaticon.com.

Last week the FCC announced several initiatives to help combat SMS spam. But consumer groups say they actually weaken oversight of cell carriers.

By now Ajit Pai has developed a fairly impressive skill: take something that cellular carriers lobbied for, and justify it by insisting it’s essential for overall efficiency and effective consumer protection.

Basically, cell carriers want the FCC to classify text messages as Title I Information Services. This removes certain consumer protections and makes it possible for carriers to censor any speech they think is “controversial.”

A study from researchers at the University of Michigan found that smart speaker buyers tend to brush off privacy concerns.

“What was really concerning to me was this idea that ‘it’s just a little bit more info you give Google or Amazon, and they already know a lot about you, so how is that bad?’” said Florian Schaub, an assistant professor in the University of Michigan School of Information and a co-author of the study. “It’s representative of this constant erosion of what privacy means and what our privacy expectations are.”

It’s too early in the morning and I can’t think of the term for this, but this study seems a bit loaded to me. Do these buyers already not care about privacy, or did buying a smart speaker further erode their concerns?