Posted on 07/18/2007 4:34:09 PM PDT by holymoly
Ads could be targeted at users based on local system data.
Microsoft has filed a patent application for a new method of targeting advertising, using information on the contents of a local computer rather than interactions with the web.
While most current advertising relies on watching an individual's web browsing habits, selecting the type of ads to show them based on the type of sites they visit, the system proposed by Microsoft would analyse a user's computer to gather data from documents, emails, downloaded media content and even system settings, which would then be used to create a more accurate picture of the type of person using the machine - and the type of advertising most likely to appeal to them.
The vast amount of personal data such a system would have access to, and the potential for abuse of that data once it leaves the relative security of a local machine, has worried many observers, and the patent has been dubbed 'the mother of all adware systems' (in this article from ars technica).
The patent, filed in February last year, was uncovered recently by InformationWeek - their report is here and the patent itself is here.
To be included in the next version of Windows?
I would have to remove the various ad blockers I have running now.
No thanks, Microsoft. I don’t need MORE ads from the Web.
I detest MS. That’s why I’ve switched to Kubuntu here at home.
So, in other words, Microsoft outlined, in a patent, how to commit data theft and use the results of that theft to generate profit?
Sorry, my processor is mine to do with as I please, so is my hard drive space. None of it is owned by Microsoft. If there’s a better example of why the patent system needs to be thrashed and burned, I can’t think of it. This is almost as stupid as the patent for swinging a swing sideways.
i don’t want brother bill gates in my pc!
/s
he’ll just send his profits to africa.
Doesn’t Microsoft own the horrible spyware hijacking program put out by Gator?
And didn’t they reclassify it from being “spyware” after they acquired it?
Billions of dollars, you’d think they could just shut down crapware. Instead they plan to make more off of it.
Then again, the first prank-macros I ever encountered came from DOC files released by Microsoft to computer companies. One employee noticed a “see if this works” type comment in it.
Vista Service Pack 1?
Perhaps MS will sue spyware companies for violating their patents. :-)
how come the golden eagle doesn’t show up on these kinds of posts?
LOL. I’ll give you three guesses.
> LOL. I’ll give you three guesses.
Tut, tut, shame on you Shadow, did you get sick of GE's trolling and take him off the TechPing list? ;-)
I'll bet he's out tonight, celebrating Microsoft breaking the $50 Billion revenue mark (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1868703/posts) because it means his commission from Redmond for trashing Linux and boosting Windows goes up again. /s
I'd like to think he would condemn invasive ad-ware regardless of its source, but if it comes from the Eye of Gates and the Mouth of Ballmer, he usually comes up with some lame excuse to tell us all about how targeted ads are all-American.
I've pinged GE on this comment, because even though I'm poking fun at him a bit, I really am curious to know his take on this latest move by Microsoft. I have my fingers crossed that this exceeds even his threshold of pain.
I took him off well over a year ago. I have polled the list to let him back on, but a VAST majority said no.
I have my fingers crossed that this exceeds even his threshold of pain.
If if does denounce this move, it will be in the mildest terms possible, and then he'll blame Linux for "forcing" this on MS.
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