back to article Google proposes eye-tracking ad-tracking

There's many a slip between patent and product, but it seems Google is eyeing (sorry) the revenue opportunities for Google Glass beyond flogging a fashion accessory to tech tragics. The Chocolate Factory's latest patent proposes extending "pay per click" models to the world of meatware by tracking what you're looking at, in case …

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  1. jake Silver badge

    Does *any* google user ...

    ... have even half a clue as to why I drop all of the gootards IP traffic on the floor for privacy reasons? And if not, why not? Are you all hard of thinking?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Does *any* google user ...

      The massive number of Gmail users suggests that they don't even care…

      1. jake Silver badge

        @AC 06:35 (was: Re: Does *any* google user ... ) ...

        There is mail from google? Who knew.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Does *any* google user ...

      Well as you are using a PC (I presume not permanently through a VPN) and as you probably use a Bank Card to pay for things and walk around the streets in a town or city, you have far more privacy worries than using Google.

      But I don't think anyone, whether a Google User or anyone else, cares what *you* do or why you do it.

      1. Pascal Monett Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: "But I don't think anyone [..] cares what *you* do or why you do it."

        Aww, now you've gone and hurt some poor NSA employees' feelings, you nasty man, you.

  2. Big-nosed Pengie

    I wonder whether they run Adblock?

  3. Turtle

    A Better Place.

    The amount of human effort and capital invested in serving ads by Google (and their ilk) is astounding. It doesn't matter how much money they make, the world would be a better place if people who spend their lives occupied like that were exterminated.

    1. Steven Roper
      Thumb Up

      Re: A Better Place.

      Agreed, although the B Ark would be an acceptable alternative for those feeling a bit less murderous...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: A Better Place.

        I'd go for a hybrid of the B ark and Disaster Area's crowd pleasing finale. Spectacularly murderous.

  4. Sebastian A

    Just another reason

    why I keep as much of my personal life out of Google's way as I can. I may be old fasioned but some of this stuff is just getting WAAAAAAY too creepy for me.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Just another reason

      why I keep as much of my personal life out of Google's way as I can. I may be old fasioned but some of this stuff is just getting WAAAAAAY too creepy for me.

      Yes, but that's exactly why Google Glasses exist: they will catch you wether you want it or not. The whole BS story about possibly be able to opt out only goes for the Glasshole itself, not for its victims. This is again an abuse of that glaring hole in privacy laws globally: it may no longer be legal to directly acquire data from someone, but Facebook and Zygna together have been demonstrating for years that that "problem" is easily bypassed by getting a 3rd party (formerly known as "friend") to collect said information instead.

      As for the main article:

      Vulture South is just as interested to know whether Google's considered the legal implications of running anything a Glass user looks at back to a server just to work out whether the wearer is looking at a half-naked, lingerie-clad Victoria's Secret advertisement, or a half-naked, lingerie-clad girlfriend in the privacy of their home.

      This indicates that the author still hasn't worked out Google's relatively simple MO: it does first and says sorry later. As long as the fines it receives remain as minuscule as they have been, there is no business reason to change that MO, which is why I won't trust them, and why Glassholes are explicitly barred at our offices where we handle client data and client meetings. It's more a reminder - in certain areas we don't even allow mobile phones.

    2. Cliff

      We remember it for you - wholesale

      If they track not just where the glasses go, hear and see, but also what you personally focus on, it suggests they'll have a better memory of my life than I do. Thankfully my brain filters out much of the mundanity but this won't, it could feel very creepy indeed.

      What also if it becomes self aware and starts checking out the talent whilst I'm just trying to read on the beach? The future is a whole new world of problems.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Red Ball has your name on it

    So Google is attempting to make the fiction of Minority Report a reality.

    My opinion? Where's the "Opt Out" button.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The Red Ball has your name on it

      Your problem is the need to switch off the device carried by someone else. Personally, I think I may have to buy some stage blood and decorate a well work cricket or baseball bat with it, than tag it "Glassholes only". Maybe that will get the message across and prevents me from having to do this for real.

      On the plus side, it neatly identifies the people I do not want as friends. It's not all bad if it visibly tags the clueless.

      1. S4qFBxkFFg

        Re: The Red Ball has your name on it

        Why assume that anything other than the version 1.* Glass will look like anything more conspicuous than a thick-rimmed set of glasses?

        A few versions down the line, Google will probably be able to make it indistinguishable from a contact lens.

        1. Sir Runcible Spoon

          Re: The Red Ball has your name on it

          We'll all end up walking around with covers on like in 'A Scanner Darkly'.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This will slowly end up with a massive infrastructure in place that no one ever really sees, but which will make sure prices are fluctuated according to what you've viewed and how you've lived your life.

    You and your significant other want a trip to Vietnam this summer? Better not talk about it before hand or view ads, or the trip will be much more expensive when ordering time comes around.

    The unseen hand of the market will become a lot more real than was ever thought off, and it wont benefit the consumer in the least!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      We're a good way down the road now I think, at least with regard to perceived wealth. The more you're worth, the more choice you're thought to have, the more companies will bend over backward offering freebies, discounts, lower tariffs etc in the hope of getting your trade, even though your ultimate spend might not actually be any different.

      I'm not so sure Amazon don't already use some form of interest/click based differential pricing.

    2. DaLo

      "You and your significant other want a trip to Vietnam this summer? Better not talk about it before hand or view ads, or the trip will be much more expensive when ordering time comes around."

      This would not make any sense. If you have a customer who a hot lead the last thing you'd want to do it turn them away by upping the price as another supplier will just step in with a more reasonable price, Or they'll just visit Cambodia instead. You'd be better off doing a limited time special offer so that they impulse buy and don't seek out a new supplier.

      If you are talking about a monopoly with a single supplier then the risk of fines for this would be so big that it could put them out of business. But then this supplier would already knows the percentage of the population that needs this product and it will be profiteered accordingly.

      "...and it wont benefit the consumer in the least!" For most things, outside of essential services or monopolies the consumer is king. They ultimately set the price through supply and demand. The more competition the better - hence why the Android/iPhone/WMobile etc battle is so good for consumers (especially with multiple manufacturers).

  7. Jellied Eel Silver badge

    Eye predict

    Lingerie advertising becoming a lot more expensive under a pay-per-gaze model.

    1. frank ly

      Re: Eye predict

      If Google were willing to reward me in some way, I'd be happy to spend my free time gazing at lingerie adverts. In fact, if they outlined the ads with a distinctive marker of some kind, I'd be happy to gaze at any advert. Can I patent that idea?

      1. Fletchulence

        Re: Eye predict

        You want to patent click fraud?

    2. dorsetknob
      FAIL

      Re: Eye predict

      what about the " Porn Effect "

      what Adverts will Guggle serve when i browse in my local XXX shop ?

  8. h3

    The world will be like it is in Neuromancer before long.

  9. mafoo
    Coat

    Google suggests...

    Google glass recommends for you:

    100% pure breast, chicken nuggets.

  10. Chris G

    NSA Oversight

    This kind of technology should have the oversight of a responsible government agency to make sure the information gathered is not abused.

    In addition anybody who repeatedly looks at violent or anti-social images will clearly be potential terrorists or criminals so they can be detected way before they are a real threat and will be 'redacted' accordingly.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Area 51

    Can we send all the Google Glass users on a one way ticket to Area 51?

    They clearly have no sense of reality with their Ad Blighted view of the world.

  12. Dave Ross

    And there's the problem, we already have proof that "responsible government agency" is an oxymoron.

  13. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    The Total Surveillance Society

    It is coming, and you will not be able to opt out.

    I'm not saying that Google is planning it, but the NSA has brilliantly demonstrated that it will happily hijack any existing infrastructure to acquire the data it craves, whether that is illegal or not.

    The fact that Google is thinking of doing this means that the NSA is thinking of ways to mine it.

    And that is where we hit the Total Surveillance Society.

    And the sheeple will go on munching...

  14. John Tserkezis

    It's the Cue:Cat all over again...

    For the benefit those who haven't heard of it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuecat , it was a PC-attached barcode scanner who's entire purpose in life was for users to scan their packet of chips, and have it direct you to a website that had more information on said chips. And now that it knows you like those chips, direct you (proabably though non-direct means) to websites or stores where you can buy more chips.

    Released in 1999, they gave them away for free at Radio Shack (the scanners, not the chips).

    By 2005, a liquidator was desperately getting rid of 2 million of the things for 30c each. They still appear to this day on eBay for $25 each, though they're probably still worth free.

    If google glass does the same, and charge what they do, you too can expect to buy a google glass in 10 years on eBay for about $4000. For historic reasons only you understand, and it can't even read barcodes.

  15. danR2

    Saw this sort of thing long ago

    As soon as Samsung's eye-tracking arrived, I widely posted a basic algorithm that goes even further than that:

    forced tracking of ads:

    If eye(x,y)<>adCenter(x,y), then eye(x,y)=adCenter(x,y)

    So, they will charge a premium for advertisers who want to insure users ARE looking at their ads.

    Maybe the Luddites had a point...

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Have they gone full evil yet or are they just a bunch of obnoxious cuntards? I don't use them so it's hard to tell from here.

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