Yahoo is reporting that whenever you happen to be looking at an ad in the subway, on the way to work, or even at the mall, there is an increasing chance that the ad could be looking right back at you.Recently, advertisers have began to hide small cameras, either embedded in the ad itself or around the ad, that identify people who are looking at it. This means that the ad can change accordingly to the viewer, taking 'personalized ads' to an entire new level. As it stands at the moment, the ads cannot currently identify people individually, Minority Report-style, but recognizes "outward appearances". Essentially, this means teenagers might be seeing a whole lot more ads for video games, whereas women may see more ads for cosmetics.
In order to the technology to work, the camera analyzes the face of the person looking at it, and compares it to a database of male and female photos. Advertisers are currently looking at ways to target people based on ethnicity, but manufacturers of the camera technology claim it's much harder than determining between male and female. Due to security concerns, manufacturers of the technology have come out stating that the camera store no images.
This technology worries Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil-liberties group in San Francisco. Tien claims it's "not as bad as some technology", however believes this new level of advertising is an erosion of privacy.
Where do you think ads will go from here? Ads that can utilize the webcam in your computer? Let's hope not.
Well, I better start worrying.
If Neowin had a Comment of the Day section, you'd get my vote.
Nah, then everyone would sit and try to be funny. Then bitch when people don't find them to be humorous at all.
Haha, good point
what camera. his point was they would be stolen
"Advertisers are currently looking at ways to target people based on ethnicity, but manufacturers of the camera technology claim it's much harder than determining between male and female."
"Advertisers are currently looking at ways to target people based on ethnicity, but manufacturers of the camera technology claim it's much harder than determining between male and female."
He is saying it would just be the next logical step (I would think it would be harder to detect male vs female than color). Something like Racial Profiling. "This chick is white, advertise the Chanel." "This dude is black, advertise the rap CD." "This dude is Asian, display the Berkeley ad."
In any case is kind of messed up IMO.
Your ads are going to be all ****ed up.
He'll get ads for tin foil hats. :p
As we all use DVRs more and more, advertisers need a way to get their message to us. We may not like it, but it's important to remember that we all need to make a living. And this is not selling your soul or making machines that kill people. This is just advertisting.
However, one interesting thought came to mind: would there possibly a number of crimes caught on tape? Also, wouldn't the ad have to inform you that you are being recorded?
Right. So unless the advertiser is watching you live it would be useless to have a camera installed.
Next we will see advertisements that literally change based on what the camera sees to fit the current demographic. Might be advertising the same product or service but the message will be more relevant to people of a certain gender/age/ethnicity/whatever.
I'm still suprised that people feel this is a bad thing. (really) Would you rather be bothered by adverts that have nothing to do with you? Don't we all really want to know about products that fit within our needs/wants?
The tech I worked on did not keep images. The video feed was processed in real-time and there was no need or desire to keep the footage.
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