In your head - in your pocket
Posted in NEWS by Rachael on Jun 11, 07:00AM
Ever walked down the street and just had the feeling someone was watching you? For the past decade civil liberties activists have expressed concern about the number of CCTV cameras monitoring public movements in the name of “safety”.
Safety is one thing, but now we are seeing the emergence of a new monitoring impetus: your wallet - or rather, its contents.
An industry source has revealed to TheVine that proposals were made as far back as three years ago to make use of sensor technologies and smart chips – like those being introduced to credit cards and passports – to customise advertising displays based on an automatic consumer profile, compiled as he or she approaches.
Some machines are already in late stages of development, which can determine your height, distance from the ad in question and employ facial recognition software to establish whether your eyes are focused on the ad screen.
As David Bernie, vice president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, explained to TheVine, “Privacy laws need tightening up in Australia. I don’t know that present laws would prevent private companies from doing this. There are certainly some limits on government organisations under NSW state law,” he continued, “but the privacy legislation for commercial bodies” – falling under the Federal Privacy Act – “remains fairly unchartered territory, particularly in this sort of area.
“Our view is that this kind of information should not be collected by private organisations. They are building up databases without the explicit consent of the people involved and there is no real control over the use of those databases.”
Where the CCTV argument is somewhat ambiguous, dealing with issues of public protection, Bernie considers, “This kind of information has no real public benefit whatsoever. It is really only of benefit to the commercial organisations collecting it, so why should the public be subjected to it?”
Consumer profile information is vitally important to data-miners and advertisers, eager to increase their edge – to jump off the page and into your dreams. The more detail they can garner about their audience, the better.
With no explicit regulations to prevent it, consumers may find themselves confronted with Minority Report-type customised intuitive advertising in the not-so-distant future.
Movie still: The Fifth Element, Gaumont
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