Yahoo! Billboard Goes For Targeted Advertising
The entire point of AdSense and similar efforts from Google is to make targeted advertising a reality. One can argue that it already exists thanks to the above-mentioned service, but its reliance on keywords doesn’t guarantee that the ads presented are really what the user is looking for.
The movie Minority Report showed a kind of targeted advertising that was particularly alarming from a privacy standpoint: by scanning a person’s eyes, the ads are able to address you directly by name as it presents the products to you. While it’s not calling you by name, this ad by Yahoo! Japan is taking note of your physical aspects in order to display the ad that fits you best.
…it looks like Yahoo Japan has jumped into the fray, with a little help from Comel, a Japanese company that manufactures billboards. The two firms are collaborating on electronic signage that photographs passersby, analyses it using NEC’s facial analysis technology, and guesstimates his or her age.
According to the source, the billboard only notes a person’s age and sex only. I’ll wait for the privacy advocates to start making the usual statements.
Short URL: http://gadget.ca/5pp
