Minority Report, released in 2002, was set in 2054 and was full of innovative ideas that were so well thought through that one could certainly think of them as SciFi that could turn to science fact. Fast forward to 2010 and there is much buzz behind “location based” social media like Foursquare.
I’ve played around with these, but, much as I like, I just can’t see them working in their current form. Why ?
They rely on the user leading the experience, consciously wanting to tell the world where we are at any given moment, with nothing in particular promised in return, as the “points” earned are currently meaningless and the most you can hope for is a free coffee if you manage to be obsessive enough to become the “Mayor” at your local coffee shop.
Still, one thing that we know for sure is that this shows that many of us are willing to give up more and more privacy if the trade off is that our lives become easier, better, or just more convenient.
Now, rewind to this scene from Minority Report, where location based advertising is pushed to customers as their irises are continually scanned as they move through a mall. I know the phrase “eyeballs = dollars” is big these days, but not quite that literally !
It’s amusing to see how marketing has moved on in the intervening years. Who now would be interested in pushing generic magazine/tv style awareness ads at customers ?
Instead, imagine a location based service focussed not on your Iris, but the GPS chip in your mobile device, and pushing information at you based not just on your name, but your entire online identity, including interests that you have voluntarily shared in order to benefit from targetted offer advertising as you literally move through life ?
Now THAT is a future I can see happening and people paying for.
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