• Home
  • About Evelyn Kanter
  • Evelyn Kanter’s Books & Apps
  • Evelyn Kanter In The News
  • Workshops
  • NYC Travel Guru

Evelyn Kanter ecoXplorer

green living, smart spending

  • Green Hotels
  • Green Cars
    • Best Cars under $20,000
    • Test Drives
    • Diesel Cars
    • Electric Cars
    • Hybrid Cars
    • Hydrogen Fuel Cell
    • Luxury Drives
  • Travel Deals
    • Free
    • Budget Travel
    • Discount Tickets
  • Xplore More
    • Safety and Health
    • How To
    • Five Best
    • Travel Pioneers
    • Motorcycles
    • Vintage Cars
  • Scam Alert
  • Where to Go Next
    • Historic Travel
    • Epic Adventures
    • National Parks
Home » Highway Billboards Secretly Watching Us

Highway Billboards Secretly Watching Us

Leave a Comment

billboards watching us secretly_ecoxplorer

See that highway billboard? Even if you ignore it, that billboard may be watching you, via secret cameras that track you and sell the information to advertisers.

These new high-tech spying billboards use tracking technology called “RADAR”.

On-board cameras already watch those around us to warn about a driver approaching our blind spot or slowing down ahead of us, or whether we are drifting out of our lane

GPS helps us drive more safely and efficiently by watching the road ahead for traffic delays and recommending alternate routes. GPS also helps us navigate to our destination.

Toll-booth cameras record our license plate numbers to charge our electronic pay pass.

There’s other automotive  tracking technology that offers benefits we are learning to love, including:.

Ford’s My Key system can warn a parent when a young driver is driving faster or further than parental settings.

GM’s OnStar, and similar systems with different names from different nameplates, watch our braking, steering and airbags to alert Emergency Responders in the event of an accident.

But those are all systems and benefits we sign up for, even pay for.  The spying “RADAR” billboards are doing it secretly.

billboards secretly watching us

Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, the giant billboard company, which operates more than 600,000 billboards nationwide, is testing the high-tech billboards is major markets including New York and Los Angeles, with plans to expand the program to additional markets.

The new billboard camera system – in 2016 – reportedly taps into your mobile phone signals to analyze how well a particular billboard ad does its job, by tracking whether you buy the product, look it up online or even text or email about it with your friends.

That’s pretty scary, since it means Clear Channel can access a great deal of personal information on your mobile phone, including perhaps banking and credit card information.

At least two US Senators – Charles Schumer of New York and Al Franken of Minnesota – have demanded that Clear Channel respond to privacy concerns about what are being termed “spying billboards”.

Sen. Franken’s concern includes that our location information and other sensitive data is being collected without our knowledge or consent.

Sen. Schemer wants the Federal Trade Commission to issue strict policies on using such information, saying.  “Without clear policies that provide consumers full disclosure of the data that is collected, and an opportunity to opt-out when necessary, consumers lose the opportunity to make an informed choice about their privacy,”.

Unlike cameras already widely in use, such as those at roadway tolls, Clear Channel says these spying billboards track traffic patterns anonymously and track only what passing vehicles do next in regards to that billboard ad.

On its own website, Clear Channel says it uses “anonymous, aggregated mobile data, from privacy-compliant third-party data providers, to understand where your customer segments go and the best OOH locations to reach them.”  But once it has that information from your mobile phone provider, just how does Clear Channel slide and dice it?

So just how did Clear Channel identify – in a recent test in Orlando – that nearly half those who saw a particular billboard ad for a particular brand of shoes were analyzed as more likely to buy shoes.

Just how does Clear Channel know that I buy shoes after passing a billboard for shoes without tracking the specific actions I take on my phone connected to my vehicle’s onboard navigation/entertainment system?  And just how does Clear Channel know that you didn’t?

Or, even more discomforting, are they still tracking me after I remove my phone from the vehicle and take it home, to the office, or to a parent-teacher conference.

billboards secretly tracking us

Since the tracking device is embedded somewhere on a giant billboard we drive past at speeds of 65mph, more or less, there’s no way to know which billboards are watching us.

Automakers would have to add that warning to their connectivity systems, or we would have to turn off our connected mobile devices, neither of which is likely.

It’s nothing new for advertisers to track the popularity and effectiveness of their ads, as all the annual hoopla about the popularity and effectiveness of their Super Bowl ads attests.

Many of those ads, and boasts about their popularity, are by automakers. That includes their ads watched on YouTube long after they are no longer on TV, such as that delightful VW commercial with the boy dressed as Darth Vader, who magically starts the car remotely.

Some of the most popular billboards in Times Square are the interactive ones, with cameras pointed at passersby, who pose and wave and take photos whenever their posing and waving is flashed on the screen.

But that is publicly known or publicly displayed.  These new Clear Channel “smart” billboards are tracking us without our knowledge.

I can delete the “cookies” on my computer installed by websites I visit to track which other websites I visit, and I do that regularly, to protect my privacy.

But how do you delete Clear Channel from your vehicle’s connectivity system to prevent it from tracking what billboards you have passed and what you might do after noticing a particular ad?

These “smart” billboards with secret tracking are not limited to highways.  Billboards are everywhere and anywhere, and in all sizes, from the jumbotrons in Times Square to those across the street from your supermarket or your child’s school.

billboards secretly tracking usHere’s looking at you, kid. When Humphrey Bogart uttered that immortal line to Ingrid Berman in Casablanca, one of the greatest films of all time, nobody could have imagined it would apply one day to highway billboards.

If he were saying it today, Bogey would change the line to, “Here’s looking at you, everybody.”

What do you think about billboards that watch us?  Add a comment below. 


ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter is a journalist with 25+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter, and author of guidebooks and smartphone apps – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.

ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter currently serves as President of the International Motor Press Assn. (IMPA), a former Board Member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) and a current member of the North American Travel Journalists Assn. (NATJA) and the North American Snowsports Journalists Assn. (NASJA).

Contact me at evelyn@ecoxplorer.com.

Copyright (C) Evelyn Kanter

Thanks for visiting ecoXplorer. Stay up to date with the latest news about green travel, green cars, smart spending and frugal living by subscribing. It's free. RSS feed.
Welcome back to exoXplorer. Stay up to date with the latest news about green travel, green cars and smart spending by subscribing. It's free. RSS feed.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

Related

Filed Under: Scam Alert

What do you think? We value your comments and love hearing from you.Cancel reply

Most Popular Recent Posts

  • NYC Guide: Best Current Museum Exhibits
    NYC Guide: Best Current Museum Exhibits
  • How to Help Victims of Texas Floods
    How to Help Victims of Texas Floods
  • NYC Guide: Best Free & Cheap Things to Do In July, August & Beyond
    NYC Guide: Best Free & Cheap Things to Do In July, August & Beyond
  • Be Ready For An Emergency With a Grab & GO Bag
    Be Ready For An Emergency With a Grab & GO Bag
  • NYC Guide to FREE Shakespeare in NYC Parks
    NYC Guide to FREE Shakespeare in NYC Parks
  • Best Viewing Spots for 2025 Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks
    Best Viewing Spots for 2025 Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks
  • AMC Theatres $5 Movie Tickets on Tuesdays
    AMC Theatres $5 Movie Tickets on Tuesdays
  • Top US Beaches for Calm and Quiet
    Top US Beaches for Calm and Quiet
  • Scam Alert: Kars4Kids Car Donation Charity
    Scam Alert: Kars4Kids Car Donation Charity
  • Last Chance for 2024/25 Ikon Pass Before Sales End
    Last Chance for 2024/25 Ikon Pass Before Sales End

ecoXplorer is your guide to smart spending and eco-friendly living

ecoXplorer is published by Evelyn Kanter, an award-winning journalist with 20+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter and guidebook author – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.

Evelyn Kanter is the Past President of the International Motor Press Assn. (IMPA), a past Board Member of a prestigious professional group for travel journalists, and a member of several other top international organizations of journalists.

Evelyn Kanter is Senior Editor of SeniorsSkiing, which focuses on the 50+ outdoor enthusiast.

Contact me at evelyn@ecoxplorer.com or evelyn@evelynkanter.com.

Search ecoXplorer by category

© 2010-2025 ecoXplorer by Evelyn Kanter. All articles and photos are protected by US (C) Copyright laws. Any unauthorized copying is strictly prohibited. Plus, it’s just not nice.

  • Home
  • About Evelyn Kanter
  • Evelyn Kanter’s Books & Apps
  • Evelyn Kanter In The News
  • Workshops
  • NYC Travel Guru

ecoXplorer.com is an independent information service which is compensated by advertisers and sponsors. This site includes some links to other websites which are compensated for by our sponsors when you click them.

 

Loading Comments...