Facebook has filed a patent application for a technology, Buzzfeed News discovered, that can predict the next location users of the platform will be going. The predictions are based on two kinds of data: your own previously logged locations and other people’s locations.
Based on your own previous patterns, such as going to the supermarket after spending a day at work, the application will be able to show you content provided by the supermarket, such as daily deals.
Interestingly, Facebook will use data from other users to predict your next move. To do so, it will specifically look at users with a similar profile, for example users that have the same age, or share the same interests. Besides, it will take into account the data from the people you are connected with. If the application predicts it is likely for ‘your kind of profile’ to visit a specific bar after going to a specific restaurant, it could show you the drink menu before you even knew you were going there. Besides for advertisers, these kinds of applications can also be interesting for cities to map and change citizens’ behavior and traffic flows.
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