Location Based Advertising

[YankeeFan]

It's interesting, and a little distasteful, but all advertising is based on targeting your potential audience.

That someone decided to use (exploit) new technologies to do so isn't surprising to me.



Patients sitting in emergency rooms, at chiropractors' offices and at pain clinics in the Philadelphia area may start noticing on their phones the kind of messages typically seen along highway billboards and public transit: personal injury law firms looking for business by casting mobile online ads at patients.

The potentially creepy part? They're only getting fed the ad because somebody knows they are in an emergency room.

The technology behind the ads, known as geofencing, or placing a digital perimeter around a specific location, has been deployed by retailers for years to offer coupons and special offers to customers as they shop. Bringing it into health care spaces, however, is raising alarm among privacy experts.

Digital Ambulance Chasers? Law Firms Send Ads To Patients' Phones Inside ERs

 

[Inky_Wretch]

This isn't all that new. We've been doing something similar for a while now.

Of course, we aren't targeting hospital waiting rooms with ads for lawyers ... so I guess it's not quite as tacky.

 

[YankeeFan]

This isn't all that new. We've been doing something similar for a while now.

Of course, we aren't targeting hospital waiting rooms with ads for lawyers ... so I guess it's not quite as tacky.

The thing is, all advertising decisions look tacky under scrutiny.

 

[User 11148]

There's a decidedly low-tech solution to this problem ... put. the. ****ing. phone. down.

 

[justgladtobehere]

There's a decidedly low-tech solution to this problem ... put. the. ****ing. phone. down.

I'll remember to turn off my phone the next time I am being put in the back of an ambulance.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I'll remember to turn off my phone the next time I am being put in the back of an ambulance.

Don't forget to find out if the ambulance, ER and ER Doc are in your insurance network!
Put a checklist on you medical ID braclet.

 

[Songbird]

Wouldn't Big Ragu just say this is capitalism?

 

[TyWebb]

In most cases, this kind of thing is just the way it goes nowadays. But with the ambulance/Planned Parenthood stuff, doesn't there have to be some HIPPA violations going on?

 

[Jake_Taylor]

Yes. Or maybe you are sitting in a waiting room trying to let your mother in law know her daughter has regained consciousness.

Sometimes people are using the phone for it's original purpose.

 

[cjericho]

There's a decidedly low-tech solution to this problem ... put. the. ****ing. phone. down.

Yes, for this case. But they track you whenever you are on it. Better solution might be to use search engines that don't track.

DuckDuckGo mobile app promises private web browsing

 

[justgladtobehere]

Don't forget to find out if the ambulance, ER and ER Doc are in your insurance network!
Put a checklist on you medical ID braclet.

But if my phone is off so my location cannot be tracked, how can I find out? AHHHHH!

 

[justgladtobehere]

Wouldn't Big Ragu just say this is capitalism?

I think the discussion needs to be nuanced then just repeating the word 'privacy.'

 

[YankeeFan]

In most cases, this kind of thing is just the way it goes nowadays. But with the ambulance/Planned Parenthood stuff, doesn't there have to be some HIPPA violations going on?

From the article:

Perhaps a bit alarming, but is it illegal? McGeveran says not necessarily, at least not right now. The federal heath privacy law known as HIPAA, for instance, would not apply to these location-based mobile ads.

"It applies to hospitals and clinics and doctors and insurance companies, not to the lawyers and the marketers working on their behalf," he says. "HIPAA is targeted only to certain particular actors in the health care industry, so there's lots of digital marketing and record-keeping that's outside of HIPAA."

Besides, all they can really tell is that you were there. They don't get any medical info. You may be visiting someone, or there to repair an espresso machine.

 

[TigerVols]

I continue to be amazed at why people complain about receiving ads they may find useful, as opposed to being exposed to ads of products or services they will never need -- or the alternative, paying for access to websites or apps that they currently use for free.

 

[User 11148]

You may be ... there to repair an espresso machine.

Right. You were there to repair an espresso machine ... not to glom some free condoms.

 

[cjericho]

I continue to be amazed at why people complain about receiving ads they may find useful, as opposed to being exposed to ads of products or services they will never need -- or the alternative, paying for access to websites or apps that they currently use for free.

Might be people have a problem with being tracked as much as receiving the ads.

 

[justgladtobehere]

Might be people have a problem with being tracked as much as receiving the ads.

They like being 'tracked' when using Maps or Waze. And it is my understanding that the advertiser isn't tracking any one person. Ads are sent automatically when the phone is detected near something. Nobody in the chain knows who the person is.

 

[Slacker]

In most cases, this kind of thing is just the way it goes nowadays. But with the ambulance/Planned Parenthood stuff, doesn't there have to be some HIPPA violations going on?

 

[TyWebb]

Nah, I'm pretty sure the image you pasted is a typo.

 

[Slacker]

Nah, I'm pretty sure the image you pasted is a typo.

If you're a reporter, you might want to file that under Pro Tips.