Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Should Website Advertisers Know Your Name?
SF fans recall the irritation felt by John Anderton in the movie Minority Report as he tried to walk through a mall - while being addressed by every department store advertisement he walked past.
(Video of Minority Report targeted advertisements)
In the movie, Anderton was identified by means of a public iris scanner; his iris scan was compared to a database, and his name and other data were pulled out and presented in real time.
We're very close to being able to do this in real life. Sprint has tried ads triggered by RFID-based loyalty cards. In a special opt-in trial, cell phone users in France tried billboards that could call you as you passed by. In Japan, SuiPo posters can call your cell phone.
The New York Times provides an interesting view of personalized ads - right in your own home, or on your laptop or iPhone. The reporter asked Google, AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo a simple question - "can they show you an advertisement with your name in it?"
The short version:
- Microsoft
"Microsoft stands alone on the name-ad question. The technology company has gone beyond policy making and created a technological barrier to using people’s personal information in advertising." - AOL
"AOL does have the ability to offer ads containing people’s names, which are provided to AOL during registration. But, if AOL offered “name-ads,” which it has no plans to, its privacy policy only allows it to place those ads on AOL-owned sites." - Yahoo
"Yahoo is open to the idea of name-ads. A spokeswoman said that Yahoo can customize ads with people’s registration information, if they are logged in." - Google
"Google told me that they “might” have the technology be able to serve such ads that show your Google user name, and that they have no current privacy rule against it."
The future shown in the Minority Report movie video clip shown above is a real possibility; it could certainly be implemented on your computer while web browsing.
I liken web shopping or web browsing to looking into a store window. I do not want to feel that I am being personally watched while I "stroll" past your website. I want the choice about providing my name and personal data to be my choice alone.
What do you think?
Take a look at the nicely done article at Where Every Ad Knows Your Name - from Bits, the New York Times technology blog.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 3/12/2008)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 1 )
Related News Stories - (" Communication ")
Polish Turns Your Nail Into A Stylus
'He wrote on it, using the pointed fingernail of his right forefinger...' - Cordwainer Smith, 1950.
Huawei Pura X Folding Phattie Phone
Why can't we get more innovative phone configurations?
Positioned Cybertrucks With Free Starlinks WiFi In LA
'Several thousand of them formed the positioning grid on the rubble pile.' Vernor Vinge, 1999.
Will Whales Be Our First Contact?
'He had piloted the Adastra to its first contact with the civilization of another solar system.' - Murray Leinster, 1935.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Grok And The City Fathers From 'Cities In Flight' By James Blish
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
Why Not Move A Warehouse District?
'Did you never see a moving house before?'
Will An AI Found A New Religion?
'You must decide how you will worship Me.'
Terraformer Industries Make Methane
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
I Need An Outdoor Spherical Display
'Usually a spherical display hovered in the centre...'
Worm Disrupts Physics Simulations Undetected For A Decade
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer
It's a computer, but just barely.
'Soft Assembly' Fashions That Fashion Themselves On The Wearer
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
Orwell's Nightmare Of AI-Written Novels Comes To Pass
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
ISS Plagued By Leak - Again!
'There were perhaps a dozen bladder-like objects in the tunnel...'
Ridiculous 'Ghost Murmur' Tech Still Science Fiction
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
Outdoor Video Screens Can Be Arbitrarily Large
The Shape of Things To Come
Infrared Contact Lenses To See In The Dark
'I can see in the dark, Case.'
What'll You Have? Extinct Animals Returned, Or Synthetic Eggshells?
'...a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell.'
Sunbird Pulsar Fusion Like Leinster's Space Tug
'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'
RentAHuman App Lets AI Agents Hire Humans
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'
