For a company that recently said it didn't make money by using its users' personal info, Apple does seem invested in devising technology to do so. A new patent unveils a system that will take your balance into account, to show you ads of things you can actually afford.
Online platforms revolutionized the way ads are targeted. Today, someone wishing to advertise on Facebook can select not only on which country a particular should be shown, but restrict that even further, to a particular city, a particular gender, age range, and even take into account personal preferences. It's really everything a company could ask for: "show my ads to females, aged 30-40, living in Boston that like sports and outdoors".
There was only one thing missing, and Apple seems to have taken care of that: how much money you have. With this extra bit of information, companies can ensure their ads will only reach users that will actually be able to afford their products, which will be another "revolution" in itself. No point is shoving luxury items in the face of people that may never be able to afford it; no point in drowning high-income users in budget-gadgets they'll consider trash.
It might actually end up being a good thing, if only for the fact that people don't need any more incentive to "want" things above what they can afford. Anyway, it's not as if luxury brands will simply disappear from our everyday life. Many of these brands rely on their public perception, that everyone knows how expensive they are. They won't risk targeting rich people to the point that no one else will even know what "that" is.
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