UK bars trash cans from tracking people with Wi-Fi .
But if a company could see that a certain smartphone user spent 20 minutes in a McDonald’s every day, it could approach Burger King about airing an ad on the bin’s video display whenever that user walks by at lunchtime. Or it could target its commercials in real time by distinguishing between people who work in the area and visiting tourists.
The prospect drew comparisons to the creepy “Good evening, John Anderton” ads from the Tom Cruise thriller “Minority Report.”
I can’t really work up anything other than amusement at the concept. But since the collected data is presumably subject to subpoena I can definately see it as just another cog in the surveillance machine.
The UK equivalent of the NSA is the Government Communications Headquarters, commonly called GHCQ.
(The acronym is just to catch people out
)