Google’s Environment-Targeted Ads Patent
If you thought Google’s online Ads are at times a bit too well targeted, just wait — it looks like they’re just getting started.
If you thought Google’s online Ads are at times a bit too well targeted, wait — it looks like they’re just getting started. It turned out a few years ago; Google filed a patent for a technology that would analyze background noise around your phone and then target ads accordingly. It’s called “Advertising based on environmental conditions.” Perhaps now is a good time to take a look at the opt-out process again for Google Ads…
Actually, the patent was filed in 2008, but it’s caused quite a stir on the web today. The idea would be to use sensors to determine how a remote device is placed and then serve advertisements following that.
The very detailed patent also includes information about how it could help sponsors configure their ad campaigns according to environmental conditions. I guess that means it probably won’t give you ads about Bible classes if it senses you’re in a bar (or maybe that’s exactly what you would get…).
It does sound a bit like something coming from “1984”. Still, Google was quick to send a comment to Gizmodo and other sites that wrote about the patent, saying that it files patents on many ideas that its employees come up with and that some of those become real products and services while most do not. Therefore, it added that its patent applications are not necessarily indicating its future product announcements.
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