Tesco adds screens to scan faces to tailor ads
Print Edition
Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco is to install screens at its petrol stations that scan customers’ faces so that advertising can be tailored to their age and gender.
The world’s third-biggest supermarket chain will install the high-tech screens at the tills of its 450 British petrol stations, according to Amscreen, the digital advertising firm that developed the technology.
Amscreen Chief Executive Simon Sugar admitted that the devices were “like something out of ‘Minority Report,’” the 2002 sci-fi movie directed by Steven Spielberg.
But he told The Grocer magazine: “This could change the face of British retail and our plans are to expand the screens into as many supermarkets as possible.”
The screens detect the faces of shoppers approaching the tills and identify their gender and approximate age. They then display ads targeted at that demographic group.
Privacy campaigners blasted Tesco’s decision to use the “OptimEyes” technology and called on the retailer to inform customers when they are being scanned.
“Scanning customers as they walk through the store without customers ever giving permission for them to be scanned in that way ... There’s a huge consent issue there,” said Nick Pickles of the campaign group Big Brother Watch.
But Amscreen insisted its technology is “non-intrusive” and “meets with privacy and data protection requirements.”
“The screens do not use eyeball scanners, facial recognition or identify individual customers in any way,” a spokeswoman said. “They simply estimate whether a person is male or female and which one of three age groups they belong to.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
