[Infowarrior] - Google plans to profile players

[Richard Forno]

Google plans to profile players
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/google-plans-to-profile-players/2007/05/
12/1178899164199.html

David Adam and Bobbie Johnson
May 13, 2007
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INTERNET giant Google has drawn up plans to compile psychological profiles
of millions of web users by covertly monitoring the way they play online
games.

The company thinks it can glean information about an individual's
preferences and personality type by tracking their online behaviour, which
could then be sold to advertisers. Details such as whether a person is more
likely to be aggressive, hostile or dishonest could be obtained and stored
for future use, it says.

The move is intended to customise ads shown to players of online video games
by tailoring them to specific tastes and interests. But it has worried
privacy campaigners, who said the implications of compiling and storing such
detailed information were "alarming".

Sue Charman of British online campaign Open Rights Group said: "I can
understand why they are interested in this, but I would be deeply disturbed
by a company holding a psychological profile. Whenever you have large
amounts of information it becomes attractive to people ‹ we've already seen
the American federal Government going to court over data from companies
including Google."

The plans are detailed in a patent filed by Google in Europe and the US last
month. It says people playing online role-playing games would be
particularly good to target, because they interact with other players and
make decisions that probably reflect their behaviour in real life.

The patent says user dialogue may be used to characterise the user as, for
example, profane, blunt, polite, cautious, aggressive, non-confrontational,
stealthy, honest, cooperative or uncooperative.

The information could be used to make ads that appear inside the game more
"relevant to the user", Google says.

Players who spend a lot of time exploring "may be interested in vacations,
so the system may show ads for vacations". And those who spend more time
talking to other characters will see ads for mobile phones.

The patent says Google could also monitor people playing on any game console
that hooks up to the internet, including the Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii
and Microsoft's Xbox.