Ford seeks patent for software that records your conversations to show you ads

Ford Motor Company has officially given you a reason to stay away from its cars. The car giant has filed a patent for a product that it claims can record conversations you have in your own vehicle so that third parties can serve you ads based on what you say. It’s so creepy and so invasive that you’d be forgiven for giving up on the brand completely and utterly.

The patent, which was originally reported by Motor1, refers to an “In-Vehicle Advertisement Presentation System.” The system would use recordings of conversations that took place inside the vehicle’s cabin to inform what ads to show passengers. It would also be able to monitor the vehicle’s geographic location, the speed at which it’s traveling, and other details like whether or not the car is in heavy traffic.

“Such systems and methods provide maximum opportunity for ad-based monetization,” the application states. “These systems and methods may use knowledge of vehicle destination prediction to deliver more relevant advertisements, for example, if the user is shopping for groceries, purchasing goods, etc.”

This is yet another example of a company discussing how to use personal or household products to essentially eavesdrop on user conversations and then mine them for advertising opportunities. We recently wrote about a pitch deck that Cox Media Group sent out that discussed similar technology that it claimed could mine conversations coming from smart home devices to serve ads. As I’ve noted before , it seems unclear how this kind of setup doesn’t violate state wiretapping laws — unless a few sentences added to the product’s terms of service are enough to justify this kind of eavesdropping.

In a statement shared with Gizmodo, Ford emphasized that filing a patent for technology that would help advertisers spy on customers didn’t necessarily mean it intended to implement it: “Filing patents is a normal part of any strong business, as the process protects new ideas and helps us build a strong portfolio of intellectual property,” the company said in a statement. “The ideas described in the patent application should not be taken as an indication of our business or product plans,” it continued.

Without answering questions about whether such a product would constitute illegal customer surveillance, the company said: “Regardless of what is described in a patent application, we will always put the customer first when making decisions about the development and marketing of new products and services.”

Huh. Does turning a car into a path for corporate oversight and marketing really seem like the best way to “put the customer first”? Or does it seem really creepy and cynical to exploit the customer for every last dollar they’re worth? Hmm. Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s the latter.