Privacy fears over camera-equipped outdoor advertising
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US-- Privacy campaigners have called for companies operating camera-equipped digital signage to do more to protect consumer privacy.
The Center for Democracy & Technology's Harley Geiger said in a blog post that the digital signage industry is “aggressively pushing for ways to track consumers”.
Camera-equipped billboards have the ability to monitor when an ad is being viewed, and to identify the gender, ethnicity and approximate age of the viewer. Digital billboards can also deliver targeted ads based on a viewer's profile, and send information to viewers' mobile phones.
“Only a few of the companies even have published privacy policies and those that exist are pretty bare-bones,” writes Geiger. He accuses companies and industry organisations of failing to address consumer privacy or to provide details of what information they collect on people and why.
“The policies should also include provisions that allow consumers to opt out of digital signage marketing that uses the more intrusive tracking methods, such as mobile phones and RFID,” he writes.
Last year TruMedia, which operates camera-equipped billboards, wrote to the New York Times in an effort to allay privacy concerns raised in an article. More recently NEC has been showing off its targeted digital ads in Japan.
Author: Robert Bain
Related links:
NEC gives a taste of outdoor targeted ads
TruMedia reassures public over billboards that look back
