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Bluetooth Ads Beamed from Billboards

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the ever-expanding-market-droid dept.

dylanduck writes "Billboards in the UK have been using Bluetooth to beam media clips at passing cellular phones. The system has been dubbed Bluecasting and 17,000 people accepted the ads. When billboards know your name that's when to really worry."

7 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. BlueTooth Hacking billboards! by SirDrinksAlot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Watch out, when someone figures out how to hack your bluetooth automatically, grab all your personal information and talor its advertisements accordingly, thats when I'm going to be afraid.

  2. Hmm, haven't seen these so far by fussili · · Score: 3, Interesting

    However they have had interactive billboards on the Tube for some time.

    They concerned the use of unlicensed faux-minicabs to lure women into situations where they are abducted and often sexually abused.

    The billboards allowed you to align your phone's IR receiver with a flashing icon to receive information on how to better protect yourself if you happen to be a woman.

    I daresay Bluetooth seems rather more invasive as a means of delivering content - particularly commercial advertising rather than citizen's advice.

  3. It's exactly the same as email spam by StreetChip · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is exactly the same idea as email spam, sending off an advertisement to as many people as you can whether they asked for it or not. Forcing the user to have to click 'no' to get rid of it. We shouldn't have to cripple technology (IE turn off features on the phone) just to avoid being bombarded with a commercial for Dominoes Pizza. At least with a normal billboard if I don't want to see the message I can look somewhere else. I wish I lived there with a mobile phone just to be the first one to file a lawsuit against the companies sending out these ads.

    --
    LeoPolus Web Design: http://www.leopolus.com
  4. Dubbed blueSPAMMING, not blueCASTING by OpenGLFan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Nope, it hasn't been dubbed BlueCasting, except by marketing twits in Italian suits and advertising twerps in Emo glasses.

    The real world calls it SPAM. If you have to get trendy, BlueSpamming. Or if you want to get really wild, based on IM SPAM = SPIM, you get BLUE SPAM = SPLUE.

    We let them use Hacker for Cracker, and we let them take Digital Rights Management for Digital Restriction Mechanisms. We control the names, folks, not them. A dog does not lay bioreclaimable fertilizer on the path, it shits on the sidewalk. "BlueCasting" sounds like a neat 21st century hip thing. "Spam" is a nasty annoyance that Russians get beat to death for. Give it the correct name.

  5. Hmm I wonder.... by Boap · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder if a virus could be passed this way and if it could then you could have infected at least 17,000 people via blue tooth.

  6. Re:Got my hopes up when this happened to me by t_allardyce · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think this could ruin any chance of toothing taking off - people will just get sick of the adverts and turn off bluetooth, that and the perceived risk of getting a virus.

    --
    This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
  7. Re:Well... by karmatic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    > Of course, how many /.'ers actually leave BT enabled on their phones/PDAs?

    Me, for one. I've even got it broadcasting my name, so if someone around me finds it, they know who it belongs to.

    I don't mind people saying "hi", in a matter of speaking. So far, it's been coworkers etc. who decide to send me files. When I start getting ads/spam on it, I will shut it off.