Yahoo is reporting that whenever you happen to be looking at an ad in the subway, on the way to work, or even at the mall, there is an increasing chance that the ad could be looking right back at you.
Recently, advertisers have began to hide small cameras, either embedded in the ad itself or around the ad, that identify people who are looking at it. This means that the ad can change accordingly to the viewer, taking "personalized ads" to an entire new level. As it stands at the moment, the ads cannot currently identify people individually, Minority Report-style, but recognizes "outward appearances". Essentially, this means teenagers might be seeing a whole lot more ads for video games, whereas women may see more ads for cosmetics.
In order to the technology to work, the camera analyzes the face of the person looking at it, and compares it to a database of male and female photos. Advertisers are currently looking at ways to target people based on ethnicity, but manufacturers of the camera technology claim it"s much harder than determining between male and female. Due to security concerns, manufacturers of the technology have come out stating that the camera store no images.
This technology worries Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil-liberties group in San Francisco. Tien claims it"s "not as bad as some technology", however believes this new level of advertising is an erosion of privacy.
Where do you think ads will go from here? Ads that can utilize the webcam in your computer? Let"s hope not.