Ford files patent for eavesdropping tech

Ford has filed a patent for technology that can listen to conversations between drivers and passengers and then deliver customised in-car advertising.

The patent application, published late last month, explains how technology in the company’s infotainment systems could be used to listen to exchanges between vehicle occupants.

Software would then filter those conversations for “keywords or phrases that may indicate where the occupants are travelling to”

The technology, which is labelled by Ford as “in-vehicle advertisement presentation”, would also learn what adverts “annoy or irritate” based on remarks “spoken by the user when ads are presented to them”, reports the Telegraph.

The company has not described how collected data would be protected and notes the innovation is only a patent and may never be turned into a product. 

“Submitting patent applications is a normal part of any strong business as the process protects new ideas and helps us build a robust portfolio of intellectual property,” a Ford spokesman says. 

“The ideas described within a patent application should not be viewed as an indication of our business or product plans.”

Details of the innovation have sparked concerns over privacy and raised questions about how it could meet the laws of different countries.

Alan Woodward, a computer science expert at the University of Surrey in the UK, said on X he hoped Ford would win the patent to “prevent anyone else from using it. Listening in to discussions in a car to personalise adverts is just a step too far.”