'Addressable TV': Big Data's Next Trick For Targeting You

If you like when Amazon or other online retailers follow you around the internet advertising a certain style of boots you may have googled three week ago, you’ll love the rapidly expanding technology that allows your television provider to sell political ads that target you and your family specifically based on what a data analysis firm has told them about your viewing, consumer, and other habits.

In the encroaching world of big data, the new technology—called ‘Addressable TV’—may not come as a surprise, but as the Associated Press reports Monday, the tactic of targeting specific homes with advertisements (whether for political hopefuls or commercial products) is set to proliferate wildly.

As the Associated Press reports Monday:

Describing how the technology works, Brian Fung of the Washington Post explained recently:

Though the satellite providers so far seem to dominate the service, cable giants like Comcast are also exploring and developing the technology for a more large-scale rollout.

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