Sci-Fi Subway

Is Big Brother watching you in the Paris métro? A plan to install new “intelligent ads” in métro stations is provoking a major controversy. These new advertising devices, the first four of which can be seen in the Charles-de-Gaulle-Etoile station, are actually LCD screens equipped with special sensors that can measure the number of passersby, and detect which part of a screen a viewer has focused on. But what really upsets concerned citizens about the “aggressive advertising” is what can happen afterwards. Via Bluetooth technology, in the future the devices will be able to send viewers looking at the screens text messages with more information about the advertised products. The Métro’s administration, the RATP, has announced that 1,200 such “intelligent ads” would be placed in métro and RER suburban railway stations by the end of 2009. Four citizens’ associations and a few elected representatives have protested against the devices, trying to prevent further installations. Stay tuned.