[LINK] New ad technology might keep tabs on consumers

[Rick Welykochy]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200702/s1859594.htm

    Electronic advertising boards could soon sense how you
    react to them and change their display to grab your attention,
    researchers say.

    The developers are negotiating to trial the new advertising
    technology in shops.

    "We have a concept called 'agile retail'," Mike Wu said, who
    is in charge of the project at government-funded National ICT Australia.

    "The message will respond to the body of the customer."

    The new system is called TABANAR (Targeted Advertising Based
    on Audience Natural Response) and is aimed at advertisers that
    want a competitive edge in a world already filled with advertising
    "noise".

    It consists of an LCD screen and a small camera, both attached
    to a supermarket shelf stocked with competing brands.

    The system senses someone approaching and plays an advert about
    a particular brand of shampoo on the shelf.

    Then its camera "watches" to see how that person responds in
    real time, with special software analysing the footage.

etc.etc.

    Ethical considerations
    ----------------------

    Mr Wu emphasises after the information is analysed it will be
    destroyed immediately.

    He says the system would not be accurate enough to identify
    individuals in the same way as security biometrics.

    Mr Wu is reluctant to disclose the specific location of the
    trials but says they will probably involve a franchise in Sydney.

    Regardless of what advertisers say will happen to the information
    after it is collected, some ethicists are concerned about the new
    technology.

etc.etc.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Talk about an "enhanced intrusive meatspace shopping experience!"

It would give me the willies to have a computer system watch me
watching it and then bombard me with targeted ads. The willies
aside, I simply would not trust that the recordings would be destroyed.
Too much temptation for authorities to require that the video data
be saved "for security purposes" for a period of six months.

I recall a story a couple years back where a man in a Scandinavian
country (Sweden?) was charged with a crime after he video-taped
passers-by on the street in front of his block of flats. He had a
camera and recording device running for hours on end. It turns out
that such surveillance is illegal in that country. I wonder if
there are laws in this country to protect us from similar video
intrusions. And how far do these laws go to stop unreasonable
audio/visual surveillance, recording and archiving without our
consent? I posit that in this post-911 world, gummints are getting
away with a lot of such activity that we are not even aware of,
all in the name of "enhancing security against the threat of
terrorism."


cheers
rickw



-- 
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Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it
is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
      -- Arthur Schopenhauer