Clear Channel Outdoor — one of the largest outdoor advertising¹ companies in the U.S. — is starting a new program called Radar² that will use billboards⁴ to map real-world habits and behaviors from nearby consumers.

美国最大的户外广告公司之一Clear Channel Outdoor正在开始一项名为Radar的新业务，通过广告牌探测经过路人的习惯和行为。

The technology is sure to help advertisers better target their ads. But privacy advocates argue that it's, well, a little creepy.

这项技术可以帮助广告商更好的定位其广告对象。但是隐私保护者认为这项技术太可怕了。

This is how Clear Channel Outdoor describes how the program works, in a video on its website:"Using anonymous⁵ aggregated⁶ data from consumer cellular⁷ and mobile devices, RADAR measures consumer's real-world travel patterns and behaviors as they move through their day, analyzing⁹ data on direction of travel, billboard³ viewability, and visits to specific destinations. This movement is then mapped against Clear Channel's displays, allowing advertisers to plan and buy Out-Of-Home to reach specific behavioral audience segments."

在Clear Channel Outdoor网站上的视频中有关于这项技术的描述：“通过使用电话网络和移动设备收集匿名数据，雷达测量路人的移动方式和一天中的活动行为，分析移动数据，广告牌路人可视度，特定目的地。这些数据会布局在Clear Channel的广告牌上，允许广告商计划和购买Out-Of-Home户外特定受众信息。”

Clear Channel's Senior Vice⁸ President of Research and Insights Andy Stevens says "it's like mobile advertising, using the same consumer behavior, but using it for [Out-Of-Home ads like billboards.]" In an interview with Media Village, he says he sees it as a way of translating digital insights to this "out of home" space.

Clear Channel研究和计划部门的副高级经理说“好比手机广告，通过使用同样的顾客行为方式，现在只是把它运用到了户外广告牌上”在一次Media Village采访中，他认为这是一种对洞察数据的户外迁移。

But in an email to NPR, Clear Channel press spokesman Jason King drew a distinction between the one-to-one approach of online digital ad targeting and this strategy, which he described as "one-to-many." He explains: "We have no technical capability¹⁰ to determine the average age and gender¹¹ of who sees our billboards, but the data providers can inform us by sharing, for example, that I-95 in Florida has a high percentage of families travelling to Disney World that pass many of our billboards."

在一封对NPR的邮件中，Clear Channel的媒体发言人Jason King将网络一对一广告方式和这种户外一对多广告模式划定界限，他解释到：“我们虽然无法通过技术手段得知广告牌受众群体年龄和性别，但是数据供应商会通过分享来提供我们信息，比如，佛罗里达州的I-95公路上有很多家庭会在去迪斯尼乐园的路上看到我们的广告牌。”

The company, which owns tens of thousands of billboards in the U.S., "will offer Radar in its top 11 markets, including Los Angeles and New York, starting on Monday, with plans to make it available across the country later this year," The New York Times reported. Here's more from the Times: "Clear Channel and its partners — AT&T Data Patterns, a unit of AT&T that collects location data from its subscribers; PlaceIQ, which uses location data collected from other apps to help determine consumer behavior; and Placed, which pays consumers for the right to track their movements and is able to link exposure to ads to in-store visits — all insist that they protect the privacy of consumers. All data is anonymous and aggregated, they say, meaning individual consumers cannot be identified."

纽约时报说“这家在美国拥有数以万计广告牌的公司将会在11个热门市场内提供雷达服务，包括洛杉矶和纽约，从周一开始，计划服务年底可以遍布全国。”纽约时报还说：“广告运营商Clear Channel和他伙伴—AT&T数据部门共同收集用户的位置信息；而Placed广告公司则通过向用户购买权利获得用户许可跟踪其活动并且能够看到广告进而去商店消费——所有公司都坚持他们保护了顾客的隐私。所有数据都是匿名收集的，个人信息是无法识别的。”

King, the press spokesman, tells NPR that the personal consumer information will remain with the data providers, while Clear Channel will only be able to access the aggregated data.

媒体发言人King对NPR说消费者个人信息将归数据运营商管理，Clear Channel广告公司只能读取这些收集到的信息。

And Stevens argues that consumers can opt¹² out, in the interview with Media Village. He makes a distinction between the Clear Channel program and the advertising in this scene from the dystopian thriller¹³ "Minority Report."

在Media Village采访中Stevens辩解道消费者可以选择退出。他认为Clear Channel项目和电影“少数派报告”中的广告场景完全是两回事。

Here, Tom Cruise's character walks through a shopping area as advertisements address him by name. "John Anderton! You could use a Guinness right now," says one affable billboard. "Get away, John Anderton. Forget your troubles," intones another billboard showing a beach scene. Here's what Stevens thinks of this style of advertising: "I'm not sure it's a great user experience and it is a little creepy, to be honest. With a mass-medium like Out-Of-Home, a better use is to target general patterns of consumer groups, not the individual."

电影中Tom Cruise的角色走过商业区时广告使用他的名字进行播放。“John Anderton！试试Guinness吧，”一块殷勤的广告牌说道。“忘记你的烦恼，John Anderton，离开这个地方，”另一个广告牌播放着沙滩美景说道。Stevens对这种广告评论道：“事实上，我不确定用户体验会不会很好，甚至有点可怕。像Out-Of-Home这样的大众传媒，更好的方案是向普通大众广告，而不是个人。”

But regardless of whether the billboards will address us personally, the new initiative is raising concerns from privacy advocates like Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. "It is incredibly creepy, and it's the most recent intrusion into our privacy," he told The Times. "People have no idea that they're being tracked and targeted."

不管这些广告牌是针对个人还是大众，Center for Digital Democracy的行政主管Jeffrey Chester提醒人们要谨慎行事。“这很可怕，这是对我们隐私最新的侵犯”他和时报说道。“人们对自己被追踪一无所知。”