Apple Patents Bank Account Balance Snooping Tech

An anonymous reader writes: Apple's latest patent filings shows that the company is looking into displaying advertising based on your available bank balance. If Apple moves forward with this type of technology it would be a complete 360 on its previous direction to not monetize everything they know about customers. Tim Cook has even said multiple times that companies are targeting consumers on multiple fronts and that he's completely against using customer information in this manner and it's not the kind of company he wants Apple to be.

Comments

Re:360 degrees is not what you think it is

[ShanghaiBill]

Companies patent stuff all the time, often as a defensive measure. Outrage should be reserved for what companies actually do. There is no indication that Apple is implementing this idea.

Also, the actual patent, does not mention your "bank account", only your available credit.

Available credit on a debit card

[tepples]

the patent is for available credit, not bank account balance.

I thought if you were to query "available credit" on a debit card, you'd get the balance of the checking account it draws from.