by The Free Thought Project
With digital advertising long tapping into users’ mobile habits, traditional advertisers have felt left in the dark ages. But billboards are about to get smart, and technology would allow them to know where you’ve been and where you go after you see them.
Advertising giant Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, which owns tens of thousands of billboards across the country, announced Monday that it will be debuting a new kind of consumer-tracking system called Radar.
Following in the footsteps of targeted advertisements seen on the web, Radar will tap into data from several partner companies to determine what kinds of advertisements will be displayed on a billboard screen. Just as importantly, the system will also track how good of a job the ads are doing at convincing people to look up the brand on their phones, or go out and shop.
“In aggregate, that data can then tell you information about what the average viewer of that billboard looks like,” Andy Stevens, senior vice president for research and insights at Clear Channel Outdoor, told the New York Times. “Obviously that’s very valuable to an advertiser.”
While Stevens admitted that the system “does sound a bit creepy,” he pointed out that mobile advertisers have been using the same data mining techniques for years to deliver targeted advertisements.
To take advantage of this trove of information, Clear Channel is partnering with AT&T Data Patterns, the telecom giant’s data collection unit; Placed, which pays consumers for the right to track their movements; and PlaceIQ, which uses location information from apps to predict consumer behavior. All data used by Radar will be anonymous and aggregated, Clear Channel says, seeking to allay at least some concerns over privacy.
The system was recently tested in Orlando, Florida, displaying advertisements for the shoe company Toms. Clear Channel said that it used Radar to determine that people who saw the ads were 44 percent more likely to buy a pair of Toms shoes, according to Fortune.
While the new tech could help revamp billboards, which look like dinosaurs compared to the algorithmically sophisticated online ads, privacy advocates have concerns about tracking the online behavior of consumers in the real world.
Jeffrey Chester, executive director of Center for Digital Democracy, told the NY Times that most people don’t realize that they are being monitored, even if they agree to allow companies to track their behavior and movements.
“It is incredibly creepy, and it’s the most recent intrusion into our privacy,” Chester said.
Clear Channel is set to bring Radar to major population centers such as New York and Los Angeles, and eventually plans to make the technology available across the country.
In other Police State news:
Police sergeant found guilty of ordering fellow cops to beat up handcuffed children
by John Vibes
Dekalb County, GA – Police Sgt. Anthony Robinson was recently found guilty of ordering other officers under his authority to assault underage suspects while they were in handcuffs. Robinson reportedly told officers Blake Norwood and Arthur Parker to beat up four different suspects, on different occasions. Three of the four suspects were reportedly minors at the time of the beatings.
One victim named Travarrius Williams told Channel 2 reporters that he was badly beaten well after his arrest while he was restrained.
“They were punching, kicking, stomping. They broke my teeth on the back of the windshield,” Williams said.
“That’s why black, young men really run from the police. We ain’t running because we did something, we’re running because we’re scared they’re gonna beat us, shoot us. When people get high authority, they feel like they’ve got power over anybody, so the Police Department’s really like another game,” Williams said.
“This is the kind of conduct by police officers that, if it goes unchecked, people get killed,” Brian Spears, Williams’ attorney added.
Surprisingly, another cop witnessed the assault and filed a report.
Williams was allegedly selected for the beating because he accused one of the officers in the department of wrongfully arresting his brother on another occasion. According to court documents, Robinson told Williams that “We don’t let people disrespect us like that in our house,” before ordering the beating.
After the investigation began, Officer Norwood turned on Robinson and told investigators about other occasions where Robinson had ordered him to beat up underage suspects. In that case, Robinson had ordered Norwood and another officer to beat up three young men, aged 15-16, also while they were handcuffed.
“(Williams) never did anything to us. We beat him because we were told to beat him by Sgt. Robinson because he was being disrespectful,” Norwood told investigators.
Norwood and Parker took a plea deal in exchange for their testimony in Robinson’s trial, and both men were given probation, according to WSBTV.
Robinson was convicted on two counts of felony violation of oath of office, three misdemeanor counts of simple assault, and one misdemeanor count of simple battery and is facing up to 14 years in prison.
(John Vibes is an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. He also has a publishing company where he offers a censorship free platform for both fiction and non-fiction writers. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can purchase his books, or get your own book published at his website www.JohnVibes.com).
