by Pieter Armtz at Malwarebytes Labs
Car manufacturer Ford Motor Company has filed a patent application for an in-vehicle advertisement presentation system based on information derived from several trip and driver characteristics. Among those characteristics—human conversations.
In the abstract of the patent application publication Ford writes:
“An example method includes determining vehicle information for a trip, the vehicle information including any one or more of a current vehicle location, a vehicle speed, a drive mode, and/or traffic information, the user information including any one or more of a route prediction, a speed prediction for the trip, and/or a destination, determining user preferences for advertisements from any one or more of audio signals within the vehicle and/or historical user data, selecting a number of the advertisements to present to the user during the trip, and providing the advertisements to the user during the trip through a human-machine interface (HMI) of the vehicle.”
Further one it details that “the controller may monitor user dialogue to detect when individuals are in a conversation.”
Based on this info, the controller can decrease or increase the number of advertisements. And “the conversations can be parsed for keywords or phrases that may indicate where the occupants are travelling to.”
Okay.
Essentially, the car you’re driving would not only spy on your driving behavior, your present and future locations, and your requested driving routes, but it would also eavesdrop on you. And let’s not forget the safety implications of displaying advertisements while you’re driving.
We have spoken about cars and privacy at length and…
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