Smile! Your gas pump is scanning you

In what seems like a technology straight out of the Tom Cruise film, Minority Report , Britain’s largest retailer, Tesco, has announced the launch of hi-tech screens at its gas stations that will scan customer faces so that video and audio advertisements can be tailored to their age and gender. 

If this story sounds familiar, it’s because just a few weeks back, we covered something pretty similar: that snack food giant Mondelez International would be installing Kinect sensors into its stores’ shelves for the purpose of scanning a customer’s body type and bone structure to deliver targeted messages encouraging impulse purchases.

According to Tesco, when the customer approaches the pump, the TV screen has an image sensor in it that will scan the person’s face to determine gender and an approximate age. From there, the computer will select the best targeted advertisement for the individual, and play it while he / she pumps.

Amscreen, the digital advertising firm that developed the technology, said that it will be installed at 450 British petrol stations throughout the country. “This could change the face of British retail and our plans are to expand the screens into as many supermarkets as possible,” the company’s chief executive, Simon Sugar, said in an interview with The Grocer Magazine.

Naturally, privacy campaigns have taken issue with Tesco’s decision, and are calling on the retailer to include a message to the customer that informs them when they’re being scanned.

“Scanning customers as they walk through the store without customers ever giving permission for them to be scanned in that way,” said Nick Pickles of the campaign group Big Brother Watch. “There's a huge consent issue there.”

Amscreen has responded to criticisms of their technology, saying that it is not only non-intrusive, but that it also meets all privacy and data protection requirements.

“The screens do not use eyeball scanners, facial recognition or identify individual customers in any way,” a spokeswoman told the AFP. “They simply estimate whether a person is male or female and which one of three age groups they belong to.”

Story via: phys.org