[FYI] Cellphone based advertising

[Kristian Köhntopp <kris@koehntopp.de>]

http://www.idg.net/idgns/2000/03/01/EricssonBringsAdsToMobileNet.shtml

Ericsson brings ads to
mobile Net phones 
by Terho Uimonen, IDG News Service\Scandinavia Bureau 
March 01, 2000 

Advertisers will soon be able to target their
pitches at users of Internet-enabled mobile
phones, courtesy of mobile phone and network
equipment vendor L.M. Ericsson Telephone.

...

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/03/04/1025249&cid=28

Privacy . . (Score:5, Insightful)
by Money__ (hallada at Netscape dot net) 
on 17:56 4th March, 2000 CET (#28)

Imagine, if you will, you're driving down the street, 
and quitely, in the background, without your knowledge, 
your cell phone company runs a triagulation server that 
can find the location of every user on that tower 
within .2 seconds. Imagine, if you will, as you drive 
past a grocery store, you recieve an instant e-coupon 
for $1.25 off a 6 pack of bud. Upon recieving this 
little blipvert, you go into the store to pickup 
your 6 pack. Happy that you've saved 1.25 on the 
price, you open a can as you drive and phone a friend 
to tell him about this wonderfull deal.

Ericsson and any other company considering this, should 
think twice. The problem with this technology, is that 
if the advertizement in the above example came from
DoubleClick, they would have a complete track of 
who-what-where-when-and why 

1) WHO I am from the cell phone billing information 
(linked together with older buying habbits).
2) WHAT I buy from the grocery store records.
3) WHERE I am at all times thanks to triagulating the 
   cell phone signal.
4) WHEN I was driving to the store from the time/date 
   stamp on the location log.
5) WHY I bought the beer from the "Echelon style" key-word 
   based logging of my conversation in order to give 
   the advertiser feedback.

The problem with this is that it closes the "last mile" 
of the trust model. I've got news for Ericson and anyone 
else considering squeezing a blipvert onto my 
pee-green-screen-underpowered static box you call a 
cell phone.

NO!

-- 
"At the end of the day, a culture is ruled not just by its laws but by
its 
 social norms. The social norms of the Internet and of the Open Source 
 community, which have proven so productive in the development of the
Web, 
 need to be recognized, honored, and upheld." -- Tim O'Reilly