Recently, I logged on to a major hotel site to look for rooms in a city I plan to travel to. Then I go to a travel site to look up schedules on how to get there. The next time I check my email, both sites are advertising on that page! I learn it’s common for advertisers to track one website to the next.
But Google might be topping them all. Word is that Google is testing a smartphone program to find out what stores you’re traveling to and what time you’re visiting them. They’ll connect the visits to the searches on smartphones to boost mobile advertising. If I Google ‘Cadillac’, car dealerships in my town/city can bid for listing on my phone. They compare car dealer listings to my location data. They can see if I saw the ad and if I visited the dealership. It’s called passive location tracking. It’ll be easier to find this tracking on Android devices. They’re the smartphone leader as far as market share and units sold these days. Nobody at Google is commenting.
A few years ago, things like this would’ve totally freaked me out. Now, I say this could be a good thing, so long as it’s not abused. If I am in need of a store in a new neighborhood, I can find it. If there is a? store is better in the same neighborhood, I can go there. So maybe passive location tracking is a good thing. But I worry about the ‘big brother’ aspect. What’s there to prevent stalking, abuse, and corruption from coming upon this system? That’s the real concern. Is passive location tracking a blessing or curse?