Google already know a lot about you. They know your Search history, and even browsing history if you're using one of their bundled toolbars. Now Google want to build a psychological profile of you based on your gaming habits. You can shudder just a little if you like, I did when I read this Guardian story over the weekend.
The company thinks it can glean information about an individual's preferences and personality type by tracking their online behaviour, which could then be sold to advertisers. Details such as whether a person is more likely to be aggressive, hostile or dishonest could be obtained and stored for future use, it says.
The idea of course is to tailor advertisements for individuals in order to more accurately target different types of people. Google already do this with Adwords, the little ads you see on the right side of Search results, to an extent. They appear in context to your Search query, and I'd be very surprised if your Search history wasn't taken into account as well. Now, detailed in a recently filed patent, it appears Google want to take the concept of behavioral targeting to a new level entirely.
The plans are detailed in a patent filed by Google in Europe and the US last month. It says people playing online role playing games such as Second Life and World of Warcraft would be particularly good to target, because they interact with other players and make decisions that probably reflect their behaviour in real life.
For right now, it's probably nothing to get all hot and bothered about. According to the Guardian article, when contacted, a Google rep said "Google registers different patents irrespective of whether we actually intend to use them." - For entirely different reasons that statement in itself is troublesome, but that's a story for another time...