CNET: Beware of geeks bearing 'presence'

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In a little-followed technology trend that hopefully won't be over exploited in online marketing - but inevitably will - big software and hardware firms are beginning to make their new systems "presence" aware. The technology allows the systems to detect if a user is paying attention, letting employers know if someone is away from their keyboard for too long a period of time, allowing calls to be forwarded to the right location and, potentially, enabling advertisers to know whether to hit a target on the PDA, computer, cell phone or TV.

IBM and Microsoft are touting the technology to companies, who might be more apt to adopt it than individual users who are already under too much collegial surveillance with pagers, instant messaging, voicemail and email.