My latest VZW bill included an insert "Meet Chaperone Services" plugging
this service. What I found intersting about it was that it showed a picture
of what I assume is the Chaperone Service in action - an LG phone whose
screen is displaying a map and has a popup showing an address in Katonah,
NY. The map doesn't match the address it's showing. But the address is a
place where I've been recently. Now I'm wondering if they are somehow able
to personalize these inserts based on the subscriber's home address - or
maybe they even randomly poll their phones for their location (my phone is
GPS-equipped) and then when they can resolve it to an address, they use that
on the ad. My guess is the former - probably everyone in my zip code and
other nearby towns gets the same address. Of course it is possible that just
by coincidence they chose this address to use on this insert across the
entire country, but the odds of that happening are low (but not zero). Also,
if they had done this, it seems like they would at least make sure the map
matched the address. And if they wanted to personalize the ad based on
monitoring where my phone has been, they would have to deal with a major
programming project, testing, overhead in the network, privacy issues, etc.
Anyway, just to satisfy my curiosity, did anyone outside of the Northeast US
get this insert showing an address in Katonah, NY? Did it show an address
near you? Was it a place where you've actually been recently? btw: I don't
have an agenda here. I'm not especially paranoid about "Them" tracking me.
I'm just a geek who's interested in the technology involved here.
Re: Insert for Chaperone Service in latest VZW bill
"Nick Danger" <yourname@yourdomain.com> wrote in message
news:47ee85e2$0$5606$607ed4bc@cv.net...
> My latest VZW bill included an insert "Meet Chaperone Services" plugging
> this service. What I found intersting about it was that it showed a
> picture of what I assume is the Chaperone Service in action - an LG phone
> whose screen is displaying a map and has a popup showing an address in
> Katonah, NY. The map doesn't match the address it's showing. But the
> address is a place where I've been recently. Now I'm wondering if they are
> somehow able to personalize these inserts based on the subscriber's home
> address - or maybe they even randomly poll their phones for their location
> (my phone is GPS-equipped) and then when they can resolve it to an
> address, they use that on the ad. My guess is the former - probably
> everyone in my zip code and other nearby towns gets the same address. Of
> course it is possible that just by coincidence they chose this address to
> use on this insert across the entire country, but the odds of that
> happening are low (but not zero). Also, if they had done this, it seems
> like they would at least make sure the map matched the address. And if
> they wanted to personalize the ad based on monitoring where my phone has
> been, they would have to deal with a major programming project, testing,
> overhead in the network, privacy issues, etc.
>
> Anyway, just to satisfy my curiosity, did anyone outside of the Northeast
> US get this insert showing an address in Katonah, NY? Did it show an
> address near you? Was it a place where you've actually been recently? btw:
> I don't have an agenda here. I'm not especially paranoid about "Them"
> tracking me. I'm just a geek who's interested in the technology involved
> here.
I don't know how wide an area they'd use the Katonah insert. Clearly the map
is not Katonah. Maybe they install the insert for the zip code the bill is
sent to
>
Re: Insert for Chaperone Service in latest VZW bill
"Pegleg" <Pegleg@usnavyret.mil> wrote in message
news:b1otu3ln94li4a70d7unutls1v0p9q00td@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:09:29 -0400, "Nick Danger"
> <yourname@yourdomain.com> wrote:
>
>>Anyway, just to satisfy my curiosity, did anyone outside of the Northeast
>>US
>>get this insert showing an address in Katonah, NY?
>
> What a wasted use of bandwidth!
>
> PLONK!
I guess you're right. Three responses, and none of them answered the
question.
Re: Insert for Chaperone Service in latest VZW bill
"XS11E" <xs11e@mailinator.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9A71B21903B17xs11emailinatorcom@85.214.90. 236...
> "Nick Danger" <yourname@yourdomain.com> wrote:
>
>> I guess you're right. Three responses, and none of them answered
>> the question.
>
> Mine did, so did RBMs.
OK - let's try this again. The question (actually three questions) was:
"Did anyone outside of the Northeast US get this insert showing an address
in Katonah, NY? Did it show an address near you? Was it a place where you've
actually been recently?"
The intent was to determine whether the address shown on the picture was
customized, and to get some idea of how customized it was. In case anyone is
interested, the map shown on my copy of the insert is not fictitious. It
shows a location in San Rafael, CA. You can see a map of that location at http://tinyurl.com/2grbep . I am guessing (but I am not certain) that
everyone got the same map. What I am interested in is the printed address
superimposed over the map.
On my copy of the insert, this address is in Katonah, NY. This is fairly
close to home, so in my opinion, the odds of this being a coincidence are
small. If they put the same address on everyone's insert, then I think they
would have made sure it matched the map.
Now this really has become a waste of bandwidth but then, how much of the
content in these newsgroups isn't a waste of bandwidth?
Re: Insert for Chaperone Service in latest VZW bill
"Nick Danger" <yourname@yourdomain.com> wrote in message
news:47f04dcb$0$25037$607ed4bc@cv.net...
>
> "XS11E" <xs11e@mailinator.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns9A71B21903B17xs11emailinatorcom@85.214.90. 236...
>> "Nick Danger" <yourname@yourdomain.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I guess you're right. Three responses, and none of them answered
>>> the question.
>>
>> Mine did, so did RBMs.
>
> OK - let's try this again. The question (actually three questions) was:
> "Did anyone outside of the Northeast US get this insert showing an address
> in Katonah, NY? Did it show an address near you? Was it a place where
> you've actually been recently?"
>
> The intent was to determine whether the address shown on the picture was
> customized, and to get some idea of how customized it was. In case anyone
> is interested, the map shown on my copy of the insert is not fictitious.
> It shows a location in San Rafael, CA. You can see a map of that location
> at http://tinyurl.com/2grbep . I am guessing (but I am not certain) that
> everyone got the same map. What I am interested in is the printed address
> superimposed over the map.
> On my copy of the insert, this address is in Katonah, NY. This is fairly
> close to home, so in my opinion, the odds of this being a coincidence are
> small. If they put the same address on everyone's insert, then I think
> they would have made sure it matched the map.
>
> Now this really has become a waste of bandwidth but then, how much of the
> content in these newsgroups isn't a waste of bandwidth?
Hey, I'll just waste a little more bandwith and clarify that my ad showed
Katonah as well, and I live in Katonah, so I think it is customized to some
degree
>
Re: Insert for Chaperone Service in latest VZW bill
"Nick Danger" <yourname@yourdomain.com> wrote:
>
> "XS11E" <xs11e@mailinator.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns9A71B21903B17xs11emailinatorcom@85.214.90. 236...
>> "Nick Danger" <yourname@yourdomain.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I guess you're right. Three responses, and none of them answered
>>> the question.
>>
>> Mine did, so did RBMs.
>
> OK - let's try this again. The question (actually three questions)
> was: "Did anyone outside of the Northeast US get this insert
> showing an address in Katonah, NY?
OK, repeating my answers, no, it was a fictitious place.
> Did it show an address near you?
See above.
> Was it a place where you've actually been recently?"
See above.
> The intent was to determine whether the address shown on the
> picture was customized, and to get some idea of how customized it
> was. In case anyone is interested, the map shown on my copy of the
> insert is not fictitious. It shows a location in San Rafael, CA.
> You can see a map of that location at http://tinyurl.com/2grbep .
> I am guessing (but I am not certain) that everyone got the same
> map.
No, my map is fictitious, neither Google Earth or MSFT MapPoint can
find any of the features shown.
> What I am interested in is the printed address superimposed
> over the map.
There's no printed address on my copy, we've apparently received
different inserts.
If I try Verizon's online demo I see the map your URL shows but that's
nothing like the one I see in my insert.
--
XS11E, Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://improve-usenet.org
Insert for Chaperone Service in latest VZW bill 
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