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Banner Ads on Your Cell Phone
James Ensor writes, "I'm sure you'll all be just thrilled to hear that Ericsson has developed and is implementing a way to do targeted ads on Internet enabled cellphones. They envision TV-like FMV commercials in the future. I can hardly, umm, wait."
I really don't like this idea -- I want to use my phone as a tool, and don't want to bother with adds or anything else that will chew up my time.
As a consumer, you have a choice -- just don't buy it. I only hope that enough people vote with their dollars to make this a repeat of divx.
Dateline: New York, NY
UP/API press wire: At a press conference at their Manhattan headquaters, the advertising agency Dewy, Screwem, and Howe has announced that they have purchased the exclusive advertising rights on the inside of all American's eyelids. At the press conference, they were a bit unclear as to who they actually purchased those rights from, but were we quick to point out that was irrelivant, because "look, we brought donuts."
The partners at DS&H unveiled a plan to capitalize on their new found advertising space. "The total surface area of the eyelids of all Americans is over eight square kilometers, and people spend an average of 10 hours a day looking at the inside of their eyelids while sleeping and blinking. This is just too huge of an opportunity to pass up."
Starting next week, all American citizens will be required to undergo a surgical procedure involving the removal of the natural eyelids and the attachment of a 16 pound helmet-like device that replaces the eyelids and acts as the ad content delivery system. The device periodically sprays water on the eyes and scrapes dirt off with a small squeegee. Two small LCD screens play full motion video ads during those times that the wearer would ordinarily have his eyes closed.
At the conference, we were given the chance to interview "Bryce", one of DS&H's R&D staff, who had the ad delivery device implanted 2 months ago. When asked how he liked his new eyelids, he whimpered "The horror. Oh, my God... Please kill me. Take me now! I haven't slept in 2 months! I'm not human anymore!" Clearly he was enjoying life now, so I'm certainly looking forward to my implantation next week. We would have like to ask "Bryce" some more questions, but at that point the second tray of donuts had arrived.
Dewey, Screwem, and Howe is currently negotiating the same advertising rights in Europe, Australia, and the former Soviet Union. The rest of the world will be following shortly.
We already have a law in which it is illegal to get unsolicitated commercial phone calls to a cell phone. Don't these ads fall under that law?
---
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com." The purpose of that site was not known. -- MSNBC 10-26-1999 on MS crack
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
I am looking forward to it, as long as it brings the cost of cellular service down. If it can bring down the cost of a cellular phone to seriously compete with landlines, and motivate cell phones to be as popular her as in Finland (which 70% of people use cellphones, and an exspecteed 120% (yes thats more then 1 per person) is exspected within a few years). Cell phones are a very valuable resource to me, if everyone had them it would make communication much easier. Anyway, a company called AdBroadcast currently does this, and they pay you money, like 50 cents or something, to send you an ad to your cell phone. Personally, a few of these a day, and my cell phone bill is covered.
BTW. If you are thinking of buying a WAP enabled PCS phone, I suggest the Samsung SCH-3500, I love mine.
Jeff Knox
Since I hate almost everything you post, it's only fair that I note that this particular post, though an off-topic troll, is still funny enough to deserve positive mod points as well. See, you don't have to be vulgar or annoying to be witty.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
gee, that's your worst case scenario? not mine -- but then again I'm female in southside Berkeley, it's enough to make anyone paranoid. waiting for a minute to call a tow truck is ok. waiting for a minute to call the police/ambulance/fire trucks is NOT. the rapists aren't going to wait for the ads to finish...
Oh and one more thing. Someone was joking about double click and how they would be able to track your cell phone usage. Well it's more than that. GTE has a working system that can track a ESN to within a couple of feet by using the timing that signals return to base stations.
I believe that all the cell phone carriers legally have to be able to do this within a few years. no paranoid attacks here -- it's becasue there are so many 911 calls coming from cell phones, and they can't really trace where it's coming from without this sort of a system. I agree it can be misused, but for me, this is a VERY important feature. I'm not looking at cell phones primarily for convenience, but for safety.
Lea
This is new?
In my area of the world (Orland, Florida, USA), Primeco has been sending us text ads for months.
This ain't cool.
InitZero
Is to have "Free Cell Phone" service, where they pump ads at you all day in exchange for free airtime.
It's only a matter of time...
And any website that includes these will be off my phone browsing list. That simple.
If you're so worried about this then you shouldn't have a mobile, plain and simple.
1) Is fairly obvious. Of course they know who you are.
2) They can get from other means - if you have a supermarket loyalty card, they can get it from that. If not, they can have a stab at it by combining credit card details with the unidentified till records that get sold. Note that the second option isn't necessarily legal in the EU as they can't guarantee the accuracy.
3) They can do already. There have been cases where mobile phone signals have been tracked and admitted as evidence of movements in court.
4) They can infer from 3)
5) They can already get if they really want and you discuss this sort of thing on your phone.
Sorry if this bursts a few bubbles, but they don't need this sort of tech to totally invade your privacy. They can do it anyway and if you're that worried, you should turn off your mobile phone now.
Greg
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
"I would agree that is is just an only extention to an already dificult problem. I would also agree that users have the ability to "live off the grid" if they truley value their privacy. What I would take exception with is the degree graularity offered by triagulating your traveling habits with a hard ID on who you are."
e s/bis0015/links/dpact98/index.html) as a good model?
This isn't anything new, though - they can do this anyway. Whether they do or not isn't relevant.
"Is it wrong for my store, on it's own, to know what I buy and when? No, as long as they seek my informed consent and compensate me for the release of this valuable information."
Informed consent is the key phrase here. I'm not sure it's present much of the time, which is why I refuse to have a supermarket loyalty card. They can offer this due to the value of the data, but the implications of this simply aren't understood by most people.
"Is it wrong for my cell phone company to triagulate my position as I use my phone? No, as long as they ask my informed consent, and compensate me for this valuable information."
Again I'd agree, but do we know what they do with these records? We know they can get them and it appears they can store them for a while as they've been used in legal cases. But d they do so automatically and, if so, what do they do with the data?
"It *is* wrong (as doubleclick is finding out) to passivly log byte crossing a network and selll this valuable information to anyone willing to pay."
Why?
I had NO problem whatsoever with DoubleClick until they started tying data to people. As long as it was simply an anonymous userID, I don't see that is was any different to plenty of other things.
For example, I mentioned earlier supermarket till rolls. They get sold without any linking to customers, as the raw information on sales volumes and patterns is still useful. Being able to identify categories of users is just as valuable as being able to identify individual users. Now, at first, that's all DoubleClick were doing. And if you regard that as fundamentally wrong then there's plenty of other issues you have to think about.
"The problem in this great nation at the moment is that there are no laws on the books from preventing this kind of profiling. It's wrong, and the laws of this great land need to be adjusted to give the user to "live on the grid" and have control over his own profile."
I have to admit, it mildly amuses me to see so much bitching about the American legal system or modern culture but still see references to this great land...
Anyway.
While I understand the potential dangers of profiling, I'm inclined to say you're overreacting a little. The American legal system DOES need updating here, but not by banning profiling. IT's just not that big a problem.
What you DO need is prpoer data protection legislation. Might I suggest the UK Data Protection Act 1998 (http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/courses/foundation/modul
Basically, all data has to be relevant, up to date and accurate. And as soon as the purpose for which it was compiled passes, you have to get rid of it.
Seems to be pretty good legislation which works well.
Greg
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
Slashdot bitches about ads on cell phones. Slashdot posts ads on website. interesting.
Advertising is becoming ubiquitous, and really, it kind of sucks. I guess that's what happens when everything becomes a 'service'. No one would ever have thought of hardwiring advertisements into a PC, (well, people have, but they were never wide spread). But the monument something ceases to be a 'thing' and becomes a 'service' it gets plastered with advertisements.
Of course, dicking around with a cell phone is a good way to end up in jail, so good luck trying to disable this (unless they provide an option). I can see it now, DMCA style restrictions on "circumventing and advertising scheme". I wouldn't be to surprised, the way things are going now, and the way hardware companies are perfectly willing to stomp all over your rights if it means more money.
[ c h a d   o k e r e ]
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Sure, I'd prefer no ads at all - but look at it this way: If I'm going to have to look at ads, why not look at ones that might concern and/or interest me? Heck, if it was for something I like then I might even follow the link or even buy whatever product they're advertising (the AIBO ad at the top of my /. page right now comes to mind).
If they were submitting and tracking personal information, I'd be offended. But if I just tell them my interests and get to see interesting ads, I'd happily do so.
-- Imagine how much more advanced our technology would be if we had eight fingers per hand.
Let's look at an example. Say you've got one of these cellphones with targeted advertising and discount net access. You're walking by the candy aisle of the supermarket when it lights up with an ad for M & Ms, which you happen to see.
Now, before you saw that ad, you didn't want M & Ms - if you did, they'd already be in your cart, right? You know that they'll help rot your teeth, raise your blood sugar, and add to that spare tire around your middle. But now you have been influenced by that ad, you figure the sweet, sweet taste of chocolate is worth it. The M & Ms go into the shopping cart.
("But I don't let ads influence me!" you cry. That's what they all say, chief, and yet advertising is effective. It's influencing somebody.)
Up at the cashier, you pay for your junk food. And included in the price is a markup that's part of the Mars corporations advertising budget - you just paid for part of your phone's net access.
But you'll be paying more, of course: at the dentist's office, to treat the cavity that you wouldn't have gotten if you hadn't bought those M & Ms -and you wouldn't have bought them without the ad on your cell phone.
Let's get it straight, my friends: 90 percent of advertising wants to influence you into making unhealthy and wasteful choices. It is your enemy.
Think I'm parnoid? Read a few issues of Adbusters to find out what really goes on in the world of advertising, then decide if exposing yourself to more ads is really a good idea.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Actually you don't need a GPS in a cell-phone (GSM). As its name suggest, a cell phone communicates within a "cell", a small area a few kilometers wide covered by an antenae. Since it is possible to know in which cell a phone is (even when you don't phone, as long as it is turned on) you can know where the owner is anytime with a pretty good precision. Pretty easy to do geographically targeted ads, but also services ("where is the closest bank ?", "I need a pizza delivered fast", etc...)
A lot of people are already pissed about the intrusivness of technology into our lives. Although as geeks we tend to drool over cell phones, email transmitting pagers and PDAs, the rest of society aint. Given that we are already tethered to work via these devices, are we really going to accept unimportant irritations into our lives? Is there any more intrusive form of advertising than this, for you personal device to go off to let you know that twinkies are on sale?
I am kind of surprised that a European firm is advancing this. I think we generally tend to view Europe as having less intrusive advertising practices, as after all, some Scandinavian countries prohibt targeting children via advertising. Oh well.
When is the Junkbuster port going to be ready?
matt
[Error! Your connection to the net is not optimized!]
You know the ones. The purpose of any advertisement is to draw you one step closer to buying the product. In the future, ads will continue to evolve; I think we can predict a day when ads will trick you into thinking they are not ads, but rather something else (the something else is where the ad companies get creative... OS errors, browser windows, java progs..). More amazingly though, perhaps ads will someday resort to ACTUALLY TELLING YOU SOMETHING F**K**G USEFUL, as an enticement to click.
As for bonding a computer to my brain, you'd better believe anything hooked directly into *my* brain is gonna automatically ignore ads, and place a muuuch higher priority on doing what *I* tell it to than what the page I just browsed told it to do. Plus the security on that thing is gonna be as good as I can make it, and not based on anything so widely used as to be the target of major cracking attempts by the underground. Hell, by the time I can afford something like that I'll probably be able to write the drivers for it myself anyway.... ;-{>
It's not Capitalism I hate, it's Commercialism, Capitalism's child. And Usury pisses me off in general.
"A witty saying proves nothing." ~Voltaire
"d'Oh!" ~Homer
Even if this service keeps your information private, even if they don't tap your calls, you ought to think twice about all these free services for advertising. These services only have individual short term gains.
Although these services seem free or it maybe seems like you're getting free money, you as the general consumer are going to pay for it somewhere down the line. Both advertising, and the services you receive have cost. This cost doesn't disappear when you receive a free product, it just gets reallocated to some other product (making other products more expensive).
Corporations are not idiots. Most have accountants and analysts that can do math much better than any of us. Perhaps a few startups are giving away products and services right now for very little, but by and large most of these free-service-in-exchange-for-advertising deals will only cost you more than the original cost down the line. The market very rarely forgets about costs. There are very few free rides. You are either screwing over yourself, or someone else (assuming everyone's a consumer) in the future.
For instance, consider the a situation in which company 'A' gives away a product away for "free" with advertising stipulations (eg., banner ads) attached sponsored by Adv. Agency 'B'. "Great," you say. I get a product from company A for free and I only have to see ads sponsored by company B! Wrong. There is a hidden cost to you if you're a consumer, ie. if you're a participant in the market.
That is, every ad that Adv. Agency B puts on A's product costs money. Advertising Agency B passes that cost (with normal advertising costs) along to 'Paying Advertising client C'. And unless client C is just plain stupid, they'll pass that cost on to their products and onto you, the consumer. That is, client C will see advertising costs as normal overhead, and just like any sensible business will adjust the cost/price of their product to reflect that.
So maybe you will get your "free" cellphone which has coupon ads for discounted beer at the supermarket. But it isn't free. The supermarket which advertises on the cellphone, has to pay for those ads. So while you may see your beer discounted, your milk and bread will start to cost more as the supermarket has to account for costs and the adjusted cost will reflect the cost of both the free cellphone service you're getting plus the cost of normal advertising, not just normal advertising. You will pay somewherer down the line
So, to simplify:
Your annual consumer spending without free services for ads ={normal product cost}
Your " " with free services for ads = {the service cost lumped into other product cost} + {advertising}
Eventually you'll being paying not only for the "free" service, but also for the advertising costs that go along with that service. Consider if you really want to support that before more of these so-called "free" services take root and become a staple of our economy. The only ones who will actually be making any money will be advertisers, and everyone will be stuck with ads plastered to everything. Is this a world you want to live in? Ponder being stuck in some traffic bottleneck with nothing to do but stare at some gaudy animated translucent ad embedded in your rear view mirror and dashboard.
I'm really surprised consumer advocacy groups and folks like Ralph Nader haven't taken a firm stance against this free ad crap. Don't be suckered in, everyone!
I remember reading about this a while ago. One potential use could be a gas station could broadcast some special to everyone in the area to boost sales. I'm worried if some hacker created a device to make these broadcast, and then we all get porn advertisements. Another possibility is the phone companies charging more to block ads.
Imagine, if you will, as you drive past a grocery store, you recieve an instant e-coupon for $1.25 off a 6 pack of bud.
Upon recieving this little blipvert, you go into the store to pickup your 6 pack. Happy that you've saved 1.25 on the price, you open a can as you drive and phone a friend to tell him about this wonderfull deal.
Ericsson and any other company considering this, should think twice.
The problem with this technology, is that if the advertizement in the above example came from DoubleClick, they would have a complete track of who-what-where-when-and why
1) WHO I am from the cell phone billing information (linked together with older buying habbits).
2) WHAT I buy from the grocery store records.
3) WHERE I am at all times thanks to triagulating the cell phone signal.
4) WHEN I was driving to the store from the time/date stamp on the location log.
5) WHY I bought the beer from the "Eshilon style" key-word based logging of my conversation in order to give the advertiser feedback.
The problem with this is that it closes the "last mile" of the trust model.
I've got news for Ericson and anyone else considering squeezing a blipvert onto my pee-green-screen-underpowered static box you call a cell phone.
NO!
_________________________
Of course, I track frequency of feminine hygene and baby products as a simple method of knowing whether I should be watching any given TV Show or not. "Ally McBeal" is right off the charts...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Not only that, but when you have your GPS enabled cellphone, they'll be able to track where you are, figure out what shops you are close to, and....
Oooh, the possibilities. Right now I'm thinking about 'Intelligent Agents' for both the advertising company, and the individual merchants. I can see the negotiation now:
ADSYSTEM534 : HELO SEARS284
...
.. etc
SEARS284 : ACK ADSYSTEM534
ADSYSTEM534 : CUSTOMER 32ft x 270 degrees, 2mph
SEARS284 : ACK - LEATHERandFOOTWARE Quotient
ADSYSTEM534 : INCOME 65000, MARRIED, LEATHERandFOOTWEAR 83.6, last purchases: 8mo self, 6mo spouse, 2 and 3 mo children
SEARS284 : ACK BARGAIN
ADSYSTEM534 : 2.3 cents initial, comission 5 cents per 60 seconds linger
SEARS284 : ACK NEGATIVE, comission 3 cents per 60 seconds linger
ADSYSTEM534 : ACK STANDBY
ADSYSTEM534 : HELO EDDIEBAUER86
EDDIEBAUER86: ACK ADSYSETM534
Well, as long as they can't tell what direction my head is turned...
I have a friend who when he was feeling angst, would sit alone in his room blasting Nine Inch Nails music. And that's kind of what I'm feeling right now.
I agree that advertiser supported services, such as TV, Internet, and magazines, may have lower prices. However, I'm becoming more and more annoyed at the distractions. I don't watch MTV anymore because I can't stand the spinning logo in the corner. I always throw a window over the top of IM because I don't want to see blinking ads. I use The Proxomitron to kill animated GIFs.
I never really had a problem with advertisments until they started interfering with my focus and my time. Sometimes I'd rather just outright pay for content instead of having to waste time and energy on an ad.
Some might say that we have a choice. Unfortunatly that is just not true anymore. Like any other mass consumer good, the majority will always win, and the majority wants cheap at any cost. (I can't *buy* a way to message my friends w/o advertisments - and the MSM/AIM thing killed development of IM for BeOS).
All I want is a choice. I want a list of the expected return per advertisment, so that I can decided whether to pay off the company directly for use of their services.
My worst nightmare is being stuck on the side of the road at 2am and have to listen to an advertisement for Chucky Cheese before I can call a tow truck.
I realize that most of what I wrote is not directly related to web on cell technology. However, the reason that I would want such a technology is convience. Anything that lessens the convience of a cell phone can and will make me angry, especally if I can't decide to turn it off. And in today's slow speed cellular networks and with today's small screens, the impact of advertising will be especially annoying.
Oh and one more thing. Someone was joking about double click and how they would be able to track your cell phone usage. Well it's more than that. GTE has a working system that can track a ESN to within a couple of feet by using the timing that signals return to base stations.
Well, I guess there was no stopping this anyway... I guess now people will start making cracks for cellphones to get annoying stuff like this off the cell phone systems...
- No click entry of your friends and family into your database. We'll track them for you as you call.
- Improved advertisement targeting. By tracking your cell phone location we can direct you to the stores nearest you.
- Improved emergency service. Why should you have to choose a tow truck service, we know your location, and can choose the service for you.
- Improved targeted incoming advertisements. For your convenience, our clients will call you with their best offers on your cell phone, regardless of what you're doing at the time.
- Telemarketer forwarding. Our database will insure that if your home or out at the movies, you'll never miss a valuable telemarketing call.
Doubleclick. We're there for you when we need you.-----
No Zen is good zen
Who knows, it may bring the price down a little with some of the targeted profit margin being met by the advertisers. At least on a cell phone, and later on Palm like devices, the screens are so small, the visual impact isn't all that annoying. Generally I only look at the screen on my cell when I'm dialing, then don't look at the display at all when I'm talking. Seems like a good trade off for lower air charges. Most of our society is numb to this anyway, look at radio ads, we just mentally tune them out. Heres an example.
What does this say:
Paris in the
the springtime.
Did you read it correctly the first time? Propably not. There are two "The's" in the phrase. Our minds generally just overlook or tune out what we instinctively think is irrevelant. In this case it was "the". The same is true for most ads, spam etc. We will just mentally tune the cell ads out just like we do on television. Hopefully lower prices will be the end result.
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
If we could get the phone and calls for free or discounted rate, ala free i-net, it would be pretty cool. Currently I don't have a cell phone because of the costs. But I would probaly sign up for a service that offered me a free phone and discounted or free calls just for recieving ads over it. Now if those ads are matched up with my calls and my calls are tapped so they can match up the ads I'd have to think twice. That could be pretty bad. But assuming privacy is kept this could be quite a deal. I think ads will continue to permate (spelling?) our lives more and more. I think eventually we'll see ads in bathroom stalls and other places like that. It makes sense, it helps lower the cost to consumers.
Billy Transue
bill-transue@NOcoolmailSPAM.net
Open Source, Open Standards, Open Minds
What next, huh? If/when neural interface technology is developed and becomes a common, everyday thing, will companies pump ads directly into our brains?
Just imagine... it could be the next generation of "punch the monkey" ads.
Can I disable cookies on my phone?
kwsNI