Amazon Granted Location Tracking Patent

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Amazon Granted Location Tracking Patent

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @02:33AM from the think-of-the-incredible-deals dept.

bizwriter writes "A new patent for Amazon just put the company squarely in the location tracking controversy. It covers a system to not only track, through mobile devices, where individuals or aggregated users have been, but to determine where they're likely to go next to better target ads, coupons, or other messages that could appear on a mobile phone or on displays that individuals are likely to see in their travels. The system could also use someone's identity to further tailor the marketing according to demographic information."

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This is good news! by Zandamesh · 2011-12-14 02:37 · Score: 5, Funny

Just don't buy from amazon and you won't be tracked!

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Lo and behold, for I am a sig!
1. Re:This is good news! by Hentes · 2011-12-14 03:42 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Because nobody else is tracking you.
Yet another stupid patent by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-14 02:38 · Score: 3, Insightful

As this has been done before - see "scavenger hunts": http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/2010/01/scvngr-cell-phone-scavenger-hunt.html
1. Re:Yet another stupid patent by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-14 04:44 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  It's one thing when people read the out-of-context summary of a patent and then start bitching about that without reading the actual claims. However, you are even worse, in that the SUMMARY explained that the patent involved predicting where a person will go next. Are you telling me that these scavenger hunts involved predicting where the participants were going to go next? I fail to see that mentioned in your link, nor can I imagine how it would come into play.
If I don't go anywhere by ackthpt · 2011-12-14 02:40 · Score: 3, Informative

Then they got nothin'
The way the budget is shaping up this Christmas, that's all they gonna get.
Of course, statistics gathered from Geocaching might prove prior art, no?

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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
1. Re:If I don't go anywhere by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-14 02:56 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Then they got nothin'
  For you, they just need to patent the method of recording where your order all your delivery food so they can then target you with coupons for local competitors.
  Assuming you don't already have a huge stock of pizza and Chinese coupons stuck to the fridge. ;)
Re:As terrible as it sounds... by Superken7 · 2011-12-14 02:54 · Score: 4, Insightful

What makes you think Amazon will not be suing others for ridiculous and non-innovative technology such as buying items with 1 click? Oh wait, they already did AFAIK :)
Still, I feel Apple is more of a patent troll and more of a control freak, so I kinda still agree that they are worse, but that doesn't mean its good, and comparing to Apple would be pointless.
Already doing it? by alphred · 2011-12-14 02:57 · Score: 5, Interesting

The last update of the Amazon Android app had a new security requirement that it be able to read your GPS and gather fine location data. That was the end of that app on my device. I don't mind that they track what I look at on their web site or thru their app, but to track where I am to be able to sell that information to others just pisses me off.

On the other hand, perhaps I should load the app, but only turn it on when I'm in Barnes and Noble looking at Nooks.
1. Re:Already doing it? by Wahakalaka · 2011-12-14 03:56 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  What pisses me off is that these companies think they have some kind of entitlement to profit off of me and my data. If anyone should be able to monetize and sell my own information, it's me. If they offered to pay me for it, then and only then will I consent to anything.
  
  --
  The truth is somewhere in the middle.
2. Re:Already doing it? by tlhIngan · 2011-12-14 04:17 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  What pisses me off is that these companies think they have some kind of entitlement to profit off of me and my data. If anyone should be able to monetize and sell my own information, it's me. If they offered to pay me for it, then and only then will I consent to anything.
  Well, if it's Amazon, they did "pay you" for your information. And you did consent to it.
  You chose to shop there for some reason - be it the cheaper prices (the "payment" is the discount), or the convenience of just having it right there rather than drive all over the city. That can effectively be seen as you voluntarily giving up your data for the priviledge of purchasing product from their store.
  You're free to shop elsewhere. Your local whitebox computer store can sell you parts for cash only transactions - no need to give newegg your information. Barnes and Noble run a set of brick and mortar stores that accept anonymous cash, as do many independent bookstores (who can also order in any book you're looking for).
  Sure you'll probably pay more in the end, but you can consider that the price of your data.
Re:As terrible as it sounds... by Trepidity · 2011-12-14 02:58 · Score: 5, Insightful

I kinda hope they do in this case, and turn the whole user-tracking area into a patent minefield that companies are afraid to touch.

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10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
So it's like Minority Report.. by DC2088 · 2011-12-14 03:07 · Score: 2

... but for when you're going to buy your next coffee. Or maybe it's more like Machine Of Death...
Good news by Alain+Williams · 2011-12-14 03:07 · Score: 3, Insightful

If Amazon have a patent on it then no one else will be able to do it (ahem) and so our privacy will be better preserved
I wish ...
Re:We know by somersault · 2011-12-14 03:08 · Score: 4, Insightful

If you don't want your location being tracked, turn off location tracking in your browser or in your OS's location options. Simples.

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which is totally what she said
This is not going to stop by Zaldarr · 2011-12-14 03:10 · Score: 4, Insightful

I'm an undergrad student getting a degree in Business, and I'm probably pointing out the obvious when I say that this will not stop because there is far too much money to be made out of it. The thing is about the micromarkets (i.e. selling directly to a consumer) is that it takes out all the guesswork involved in trying to appeal to a mass or niche market. No (expensive) market research needs to be done - other than having an algorithm sort through a bunch of information about yourself (provided most likely by Google or Facebook, whatever's your poison) and matching it with related products, and BAM. You're being advertised to right there, at (or near) the store, advertising to you about something that is probably relevant to you. The power of this is not to be underestimated, old media methods were like carpetbombing, just get the message out to everyone, and hope it hits; new media is now a surgical strike at your wallet via the phone in your pocket. Unless there is political control, public outrage or (heaven forbid) good corporate ethics, this is here to stay.

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I write professional videogame reviews! http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/
1. Re:This is not going to stop by Cragen · 2011-12-14 03:15 · Score: 2
  
  Amazing that '1984' would turn out to be due to marketing pressure, not the "evil Big Brother government" as was always assumed.
2. Re:This is not going to stop by smooth+wombat · 2011-12-14 03:21 · Score: 2
  
  new media is now a surgical strike at your wallet via the phone in your pocket.
  
  Except if you don't have a smart phone, you can't be tracked or have ads shoved in your face. If you don't have Kindle/Nook/iPad/whatever, you also can't be tracked. Thus, you are one of many unknown, untargetable people, not consumers, who refuse to be told what they "need" to have.
  
  On a related note, those QRC codes you see plastered everywhere? The ones which were supposed to revolutionize the way businesses communicate to people? Recent studies show that only a small fraction of people use them, with most people, even the supposedly tech savvy ones, saying either it is too difficult to get the codes to work with their camera, they require a dedicated piece of software to use or don't care to stop and click to see what is being offered.
  
  So yeah, I understand where you're coming from, but there is a large segment of the population who, for one reason or another, are either refusing to be tracked or don't care what advertisement is being shoved at them and just ignore it.
  
  --
  We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
3. Re:This is not going to stop by Inda · 2011-12-14 03:39 · Score: 2
  
  Calm down sir, there's no need to panic.
  
  People will continue to ignore adverts. When I walking to the pub to buy a pint of beer, I'm not going to decide to buy a cider instead because my phone told me to. Flashing it up on the door as I walk in will turn me off rather than tune me in.
  
  And the way things are going, fewer people will be spending money in the future too. It's all wasted effort.
  
  --
  This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
4. Re:This is not going to stop by Archangel+Michael · 2011-12-14 03:54 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Last time I tried to use the QR coded display at the store, it presented me with exactly the same information as the display, from the store's own website. That just Spells "I don't get it" IMHO. You're not helping anyone with that crap.
  If I was a store manager, and someone clicked the QR code on the display, I'd offer them something, a discount, a addon, some promotional value if they presented that information at the time of purchase, within the next 30 minutes. Something along the line of "if you buy this product, you'll get $5 off" (or whatever).
  In other words, give us a reason for using them.
  
  --
  Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
5. Re:This is not going to stop by TheNastyInThePasty · 2011-12-14 03:57 · Score: 2
  
  Can't it be both?
  
  --
  The best thing about UDP jokes is I don't care if you get them or not
6. Re:This is not going to stop by Forbman · 2011-12-14 05:17 · Score: 2
  
  ...but will it come to be like how it was presented in "Minority Report", if you were looking carefully enough? Imagine advertisers also getting some lulz from law enforcement by aiding and abetting their tracking efforts as well...
  Imagine, though, the episode on "COPS: 2012" where some criminal mastermind gets a text from "Macy's" that there is a flash sale on Brut 33 products (put there by the cops who are interested in him for...oh...driving through a school zone at 3am at 40 mph...), but only if he can get there in the next half hour, and... he falls for it.
Re:Good for them by sgt+scrub · 2011-12-14 04:39 · Score: 2, Informative

Another shit all stupid fucktard spewing forth shit from ignorance instead of commenting on the topic. When your ignorant of both it is best to shut the fuck up.
Gage Gage (g[=a]j), n. [F. gage, LL. gadium, wadium; of German
origin; cf. Goth. wadi, OHG. wetti, weti, akin to E. wed. See
Wed, and cf. Wage, n.]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)
Gage Gage, v. t.
To measure.
[1913 Webster]
You shall not gage me
By what we do to-night. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
Gage Gage, n.
A measure or standard. See Gauge, n.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)
Gauge Gauge (g[=a]j), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Gauged; p. pr. &
vb. n. Gauging] [OF. gaugier, F. jauger, cf. OF. gauge
gauge, measuring rod, F. jauge; of uncertain origin; perh.
fr. an assumed L. qualificare to determine the qualities of a
thing (see Qualify); but cf. also F. jalon a measuring
stake in surveying, and E. gallon.] [Written also gage.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To measure or determine with a gauge.
[1913 Webster]

--
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
Re:Good for them by jo_ham · 2011-12-14 05:11 · Score: 2, Funny

*you're
Google doesn't have to guess by sgunhouse · 2011-12-14 05:44 · Score: 2

They already know where you're going since you asked for directions to it! Therefore they can show ads for where you're going to be without infringing Amazon's patent.
How does it further the technical arts? by kawabago · 2011-12-14 06:13 · Score: 3, Insightful

Patents are supposed to teach us something we didn't know but this patent is just shuffling data around. Once phones are location aware, it isn't an invention to look up what businesses are at that location and then what related businesses are in the direction of travel. This is an obvious application of the location aware phone invention.