Ford has filed a patent that is supposed to provide what the car manufacturer calls “in-vehicle advertising.” The solution is to eavesdrop on what’s being said in the vehicle, correlate that with location and other data, and serve “bespoke” ads.
The patent reveals systems and methods that would achieve the goal of targeting ads to car occupants, using their conversations.
Cars have long since become yet another common place where people’s privacy is being slowly eroded – but some observers are now wondering if the latest idea out of Ford may be “crossing the line.”
Whether or not Ford’s patent, which takes intrusive advertising practices to another level, would face any type of backlash from buyers of their machines remains to be seen; but even some advertising professionals are worried things may be getting out of hand at this point.
What makes this scenario significantly different from users acquiescing to having their personal data hoovered up by large online platforms and enduring (even when “targeted” often irrelevant) ads in order to use those platforms “for free” – is that they have already paid for their car.
But now they are expected to subject themselves to a new level of surveillance, and keep paying – and with some very dear currency. Namely, extensive information about their communications, locations, direction – and intentions.
The patent indicates where the automotive industry would like to be heading – tapping into the vast amounts of money swirling around the murky ad industry while disregarding their customers’ basic interests.
But, Ford made sure to point out that applying for a patent doesn’t mean it will be implemented, nor, according to a spokesperson, should this one be viewed as “an indication of our business or product plans.” (Shouldn’t it, though?)
Another point Ford tries to make is that this is also about building an intellectual property portfolio. But that just reaffirms suspicions that the car industry may indeed be moving in the radically dystopian direction outlined in the patent.
Just in case it does become a feature in Ford cars, here’s what it would take to determine “vehicle information”: location, speed, drive mode, user data such as route prediction, destination, etc.
And the cherry on top: “Determining user preferences for advertisements from any one or more of audio signals within the vehicle and/or historical user data, selecting a number of the advertisements to present to the user during the trip, and providing the advertisements to the user during the trip through a human-machine interface (HMI) of the vehicle.”
