Pay-For-Visit Advertising

theodp writes "US patent office documents released Thursday show that a startup named Pelago is seeking a patent covering Pay-For-Visit Advertising, which uses GPS, Bluetooth, or RFID on your mobile devices to track your travels to see if you wander into a place of business that appeared in an ad shown earlier on your cellphone, PDA, or laptop. To maximize ad revenue, phone calls are also tracked to see if you dial a number associated with an ad, and financial transactions are examined to see if you make a purchase from an advertiser. The application goes on to note that the system may be of interest to government agencies. Pelago just raised $7.4M from the likes of KPCB and Jeff Bezos."

Can't I just have the chip implanted already?

[PoliTech]

I really dont want to carry all those gadgets around, especially at the beach. So if you could just inject that RFID tag into my neck right here...

It begins

[MarcoG42]

I've never been one of the people that sports a tinfoil hat, and now I can't because they'll know when I go to the store, what I bought, how much I payed for it and what I was thinking when I bought it.

Now I will generate revenue for somebody

[crovira]

without my knowledge of who, what or where, just by going to work everyday.

1. Set up a surveillance society,
2. Watch everybody all the time,
3. ???
4. Profit

Steps 1 & 2 are already happening whether we want them to or not. Its a done deal.

But the greedy little prick wants to patent it too.

God I wish I had balls that big.

Re:no thanks

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh and you shouldn't use a credit, debit card or checks for any of your transactions, forget about Buying stuff online or mail order.

And don't forget to post anonymously on slashdot!

I have two simple, effective words for Pelago...

[fallen1]

Fuck. You.

Wunderbar

[Cleon]

Oh, yay. Yet another way for big business to keep track of places we go, the food we eat, the air we breathe.

It's only a matter of time before toilets start detecting our DNA in order to show us targeted ads on the the stall door while we take a shit.

Re:Data bill

[Anonymous Coward]

Your spelling and grammar are so bad that I think it gave me cancer.

"Cell phones and PDA users may end up having to pay the data bill for ads that they may not even want, and how many people will want to waste their batteries on Bluetooth for this?