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Minority Report - Personal Advertising in the Future

dscmailtest0 HN recommenders · 2016–2026
578K views · other · evergreen · Uploaded 2010-12-08

A one-minute clip from the film Minority Report showing digital signage that recognizes a passerby and personalizes ads to him by name. It depicts a vision of targeted advertising driven by biometric identification.

HN uses it as the go-to reference whenever a story involves ad tracking, facial recognition or personalized billboards.

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9 comments from Hacker News

@newman3142016 · in “The Ad Blocking Wars”

So... something like this? [VIDEO] It's scary just how much Minority Report has predicted has come true. It's almost like the movie gave advertisers a playbook.

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@flashman2016 · in “Russian photographer matches random people with social network photos”

Minority Report's personal advertising is getting closer and closer: [VIDEO] And they won't even need retinal scanners. Facial recognition will probably be good enough.

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@tyingq2017 · in “A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system”

For those that haven't seen it, here's the scene where all the digital signage knows who John Anderton is: [VIDEO] The movie was released in 2002, so fairly prescient.

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@baldfat2017 · in “A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system”

And then able to follow you and know your present location whenever you go by a camera. Minority Personalized Advertising [VIDEO]

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@tyingq2017 · in “If all cars were autonomous”

Minority Report does a decent job depicting several of these topics. Self driving cars[1], intrusive ads[2], and "no crime". [1] [LINK] [2] [VIDEO] Not bad for a 2002 film adaptation of a 1956 short story.

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@jalgos_eminator2019 · in “American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too”

Imagine if cameras could read your retinas and identify you like in Minority Report ( [VIDEO] ). Though we're not there yet, facial recognition tech is almost ready for something similar.

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@throwaway948562019 · in “I left the ad industry because of data tracking”

I also work for an ad tech supplier. And yes, there is lots of incompetence and inefficiencies going around. But they sure are trying anyway. I recently saw the Minority Report targeted advertising scene[0] as an aspirational video in an internal document outlining business goals. [0] [VIDEO]

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@trescenzi2025 · in “Used Meta AI, now Instagram is using my face on ads targeted at me”

There’s a scene in Minority Report of a mall and it’s basically this. The billboards scan you and then target you directly as you go by. [VIDEO]

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@supertrope2026 · in “What Your Bluetooth Devices Reveal About You”

The Hollywood movie Minority Report has a scene where an advertising display personalizes the ad by your name. [VIDEO]

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