How'd My Avatar

Almost all of us have seen a movie or a television show suggesting what is to come in the future. Whether it is flying cars, personal android assistants, or a completely electronic form of currency, while we may not quite be ready for flying cars, one futuristic idea is becoming more plausible. Imagine you are walking through a mall and as you pass by each store instead of seeing faceless mannequins or perfect models in ads you see your own image. As you pass by “Macy’s” you see yourself in the latest fashions of the season, as you pass a jewelry store a 3D image of you appears wearing a brand new “Rolex”, or maybe you walk past a sporting goods store and again you see your own image decked out in the newest athletic apparel. Advances in facial recognition technology not only could make this idea possible but we could see much sooner than the year 3000. It’s obvious that we can see that good that can come from this, but many consumers may be blinded and not see past the smoke and mirror show.

The idea behind facial recognition advertising is that advertisers would collect information of consumers partially based on past purchases, items we have viewed online, and even what we have “liked” on Facebook. The controversy of all of this is not whether it is possible but whether or not it is ethical. Do we as consumers want advertisers to have such personal information about us or are we so eager to see ourselves in these ads that we ignore these advertisers invading our privacy?

An article “How’d My Avatar Get Into That Sneaker Ad?” on Slate.com discusses some of the many questions that we as consumers should be asking about this new technology. Is this an invasion of privacy, how far will advertisers go to sell their product, and, the biggest question, is it ethical? Since at this point in time this technology is only hypothetical, we can only speculate as to the rules and regulations to follow. In Consumer Insight 20-1 of our book Consumer Behavior (pg. 711), the Federal Trade Commission, FTC, outlines four standards for online privacy for consumer information that would help to regulate some of the concerns for this technology. 1. Notice, web sites are required to clearly notify consumers what information they are collecting and how they use it. 2. Choice, consumers should be offered the choice of how their information is used and who has access to it. 3. Access, This requires websites to offer consumers access to the information