Latest update: 10/06/2009 

- consumers - markets


When advertisers become 'Big Brother'
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Advertisers get closer everyday to consumers. They watch and even film you as you do your everyday shopping, in order to build up information on your consumer behaviour. Intrusion or marketing? The debate is open.
FRANCE 24 / Sylvain ROUSSEAU (video)

How can advertising can pose a threat to personal privacy? What kind of access should advertisers have to details of your daily life?

These questions are raised by a new type of billboard hitting the global marketplace. The digital poster knows when you're watching, and records your eye movements. It knows what you're looking at and when you're doing it.

Advertisers say it's a harmless way to find out more about ordinary people's habits. But critics say it's just another way to make money at the expense of your privacy.

And they warn - watch out next time you look at a billboard, it may just be looking back!

Sylvain Rousseau and Stephanie Paviet report.

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