• Ars Technica, Wednesday, May 16, 2007 10:46 AM

Ars Technica delves deep into a new Google patent for a video game advertising system that would embed a piece code into a PC or console to monitors user behavior in video games. The obvious intent is to serve highly targeted advertising. Everything from a conversation in "World of Warcraft" to a scan of saved game files would be fair game, sent back to a central server to be spliced into contextual and behaviorally targeted ads.

Sounds great, but there's a name for this: spyware. Even if the code was limited to a game console like the Xbox 360 (which is essentially a computer with a hardrive), or a downloadable game console from one of the many Internet gaming companies, a piece of software code that tracks everything you do in order to spit back relevant ads would most likely be a big-time no-no with electronic privacy organizations. Google wants to build detailed profiles of gamers here, and for the hardcores who spend hours playing games each day, it could become a very detailed profile, indeed, a little too detailed.

Nevertheless, this is the patent that Google applied forin 2005, but criticism has been widespread since the application became public several weeks ago. Google would contend that there's nothing malicious about serving relevant ads--it's even helpful to the consumer, Google might say, as it promotes games they may want. It's times like these when the whole "don't be evil" charge looks ridiculous. Gamers, by the way, would never accept it.

Read the whole story at Ars Technica »