Anyone who has used Facebook, Gmail – or the internet in general – will probably have noticed targeting advertising on their computer screen.
If you search for handbags online, your Facebook page will then include ads for handbags. If you send an email mentioning your tax return, Gmail will helpfully provide you with a banner ad for tax return accountants.
But what happens when you’re out and about? Targeted marketing through facial recognition, for example? While that may sound like something only found in sci-fi movies such as Minority Report, it is now happening in real life.
UK supermarket giant Tesco recently announced that it would use face-scanning advertising screens in 450 of its petrol stations. These screens use real-time data to work out who is watching, and then provide an ad specifically targeted to the viewer.
Big Brother is Watching
The screens use technology from Quividi, a company that specialises in identifying people’s gender and age from video screens, while the screens themselves are the brainchild of digital advertising firm Amscreen.
Amscreen insists its technology is “non-intrusive” and “meets with privacy and data protection requirements”. It does this by only identifying the gender and the rough age bracket of the viewer, as well as the time and location.
“The screens do not use eyeball scanners, facial recognition or identify individual customers in any way,” an Amscreen spokeswoman said. “They simply estimate whether a person is male or female and which one of three age groups they belong to.”
Quividi also defends the system. “It can detect if it’s seeing a face, but it never records the image or biomorphological information or traits.”
And this is the big sticking point. The companies say they are not recording the data for use later on. If they chose to do this, they would have a world of advertising power at their fingertips.
Tip of the Iceberg
Facial recognition in supermarkets is only a part of a larger network of monitoring systems already in use. Step into a supermarket and you are being watched from the moment you arrive in your car, all the way round the aisles, at the checkout, and as you pack your bags into your car.
If you pay with credit card, the supermarket logs the payment, as does your card provider and the card processing network. And if you choose to scan your loyalty card as well, the supermarket has even more dirt on you, monitoring what you buy, how often and when.
When you fill up at the petrol station, your registration plate is logged, and in some supermarkets and shopping centres, they can even track your movements in-store via your mobile phone signal. Facial recognition advertising is just another string to the advertiser’s bow.
All for the customer
While you may think this is all about advertising, apparently it’s not. It’s all about the customer. Peter Cattell, category director for Tesco petrol stations, said the technology would “enhance” customer shopping experience.
“The ability to tailor content based on time and location means this can be extremely useful and timely for interacting with our customers,” he said.
Simon Sugar, chief executive of Amscreen, said, “Yes, it’s like something out of Minority Report, but this could change the face of British retail and our plans are to expand the screens into as many supermarkets as possible.”
Good or Bad?
Everyone gets bombarded with thousands of advertising messages each day, standing at the bus stop, watching TV, walking around the city, flipping through a magazine, browsing online. For the most part, these ads are not targeted specifically for us.
While ads in magazines may be able to guess our preferences, and ads on TV could guess what we like by what we are watching, much of the adverting we come into contact with can easily be dismissed.
It’s a bit of a trade-off. Non-targeted ads show us products we have no use for and have no interest in. On the other hand, targeted ads show us more of what we want, but make us feel like we are being followed around by an ever-so-creepy invisible stalker.
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