Mobile Advertising in India by Customer Profiling

The GSM Association is planning a common mobile advertisng platform. What is a Common Platform ? It is a platform where all the GSM service providers[ Airtel, Voadafone, Aircel, Spice etc] will share their customers profile including monthly bills. For instance profile of all the customers whose average bill is greater than Rs 1,000 / Month.  Hey! GSM guys, I have some more ideas for you, why just stop at my profile ?

  • You can profile based on my location [Cell Tower Co-ordinates]
  • Do I use roaming ? If so, which places do I goto and Hotel and Airline offers to make use while roaming ?
  • When I start using mobile pay – you can profile my spending habit – I shop at Central / Garuda Mall ? Watch movies at PVR ? Where I eat ? etc etc..
  • Tie up with regional Yellow Pages and see if I call local businesses / Dentist or do I order lot of Movies ?
  • You can store my SMSs and analyze those for targetted advertising. The list goes one….

Well in a country like India where privacy issues and laws take a backstage, service providers can do anything they want to. However, the advertising system is still in planning phases and they better understand the privacy issues. To soften the end users stand on these isues, Telcos will provide some freebies, but do I care ? Is TRAI listening ?

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