“We’ve uncovered new ways in which millions of people’s movements and behaviours are tracked to target us with ads on the streets, resulting in some of the most intrusive advertising surveillance we’ve ever seen in the UK,” Jake Hurfurt, Big Brother Watch’s head of research and investigations said in a statement.
The report claims advertisers can analyze pedestrians based on their precise GPS location, gender and age demographics, and behavioral data—like how they interact with certain apps—to create tailored advertiser profiles. Though sophisticated targeted advertising on mobile phones has become the defacto standard of modern life, advertisers want to apply that same framework to physical billboards.
“These invasive profiling techniques have been used for years to deliver targeted ads on the internet and mobile phones,” Big Brother Watch said in a press release. “Now they are deciding which adverts people see while walking down the high street. The Internet’s intrusive advertising has reached out of the screen and into the real world.”
Read more:
DeGeurin, M. (2022, October 13). Targeted Billboard Ads Are a Privacy Nightmare. Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/billboards-facial-recognition-privacy-targeted-ads-1849655599