The report, which featured in Saturday’s newspaper, outlines a new patent taken out by Google which will track user dialogue and behaviour to build a profile of the gamer – which can then be sold on to advertisers. This means in game ads can be tailored to be more relevant to the user.

The patent does not only extend to PC gamers – the report also states that Google could also monitor data from any console hooked up to the web.

Examples cited in the piece suggested that players in MMOs like World of Warcraft that tend to spend a lot of time talking to other users may be shown ads for mobile phones, or players that spend a lot of time exploring may be targeted for holiday adverts.

When contacted by the Guardian, a Google spokesperson said: “Google registers different patents irrespective of whether we actually intend to use them.”