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Tesco petrol stations use face-scan tech to target ads 
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Tesco is installing face-scanning technology at its petrol stations to target advertisements to individual customers at the till.

The technology, made by Lord Sugar's digital signage company Amscreen, will use a camera to identify a customer's gender and approximate age.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24803378

Oh, cripes. Where do we start with pulling this apart?

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"It's like something out of Minority Report," said Amscreen's chief executive Simon Sugar, Lord Sugar's eldest son.

yes - but I would not say that Minority Report portrayed that kind of technology in a favourable light. It seemed quite critical in places.

Quote:
A Tesco spokeswoman said: "This is not new technology."

"No data or images are collected or stored and the system does not use eyeball scanners or facial-recognition technology", she added.

I should hope not, or the ICO would be taking a keen interest. Remember those bins in London?

Quote:
The length of someone's hair could be used to work out their gender, she said.

:lol:
Quote:
Nick Pickles, from Big Brother Watch, said: "If people were told that every time they walked into a supermarket, or a doctor's surgery or a law firm, that the CCTV camera in the corner is trying to find out who they are, I think that will have a huge impact on what buildings people go into."

Systems could only be "ethically deployed" if customers agreed to opt in to having their behaviour tracked, he added.

How the hell do you opt in/out of such a system without having your face on file so the system knows you don‘t want it?

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Mon Nov 04, 2013 3:32 pm
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You could opt out by wearing a mask, false beard, sunglasses or a hat.

Actually, a better way to opt out is to stop using Tesco. That goes for any other company that brings such a system into play.

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Mon Nov 04, 2013 4:08 pm
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HeatherKay wrote:
You could opt out by wearing a mask, false beard, sunglasses or a hat.

I'm not sure walking into a petrol station wearing a mask is to be advised... And besides, that doesn't opt you out, that just means the ads it tries to show you will be poorly targeted.

HeatherKay wrote:
Actually, a better way to opt out is to stop using Tesco. That goes for any other company that brings such a system into play.

Quite. The only way to stop corporations acting like tw*ts is to give more of your money to the ones that don't act like tw*ts. However, in some sectors, this doesn't leave you with a lot of choices.


Mon Nov 04, 2013 4:42 pm
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jonbwfc wrote:
HeatherKay wrote:
You could opt out by wearing a mask, false beard, sunglasses or a hat.

I'm not sure walking into a petrol station wearing a mask is to be advised... And besides, that doesn't opt you out, that just means the ads it tries to show you will be poorly targeted.

Or it will start advertising baseball bats, solicitors or cheap flights out of the country, one way...

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Mon Nov 04, 2013 6:17 pm
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poses some interesting thoughts ...

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Tesco is going to want to see some return on its investment. What if it gets bored of generic face data and tries and get more value from the fact that it’s got cameras everywhere? It might decide that it wants to start saving images of every shopper, and matching it to the purchases they make. I'm not suggesting they'd do anything illegal, but consider this: in 2011, an NEC executive let slip that supermarket bosses were showing an interest in cameras that spot their best customers and known shoplifters as they enter a store, and immediately summon a personal shopper and security guard, respectively.


http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology ... -database/

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Mon Nov 04, 2013 7:19 pm
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I suspect they haven't quite got the relationship right. Tesco isn't investing anything. All it's doing is allowing the ad company to place the equipment in it's petrol stations and (presumably) charging something for the privilege. The ad company then makes it's profit by selling the ad spaces and it's ad targeting mechanisms and pocketing the difference.

Maybe Tesco would like to have shopper recognition systems in it's shops for all sorts of reasons. But that's not really what this is.


Mon Nov 04, 2013 7:25 pm
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big_D wrote:
jonbwfc wrote:
HeatherKay wrote:
You could opt out by wearing a mask, false beard, sunglasses or a hat.

I'm not sure walking into a petrol station wearing a mask is to be advised... And besides, that doesn't opt you out, that just means the ads it tries to show you will be poorly targeted.

Or it will start advertising baseball bats, solicitors or cheap flights out of the country, one way...

If you look foreign it will show the "Illegal Asylum seekers go home" ad. :lol:

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Mon Nov 04, 2013 10:25 pm
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It would be worth it to see men and boys with long hair being shown tampon adverts.

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Tue Nov 05, 2013 4:00 am
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Maybe Tesco would like to have shopper recognition systems in it's shops for all sorts of reasons. But that's not really what this is.

It's called the Tesco club card.

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Tue Nov 05, 2013 5:40 pm
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l3v1ck wrote:
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Maybe Tesco would like to have shopper recognition systems in it's shops for all sorts of reasons. But that's not really what this is.

It's called the Tesco club card.

At least that identifies you at the checkout and not before.

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Tue Nov 05, 2013 8:44 pm
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Amnesia10 wrote:
l3v1ck wrote:
Quote:
Maybe Tesco would like to have shopper recognition systems in it's shops for all sorts of reasons. But that's not really what this is.

It's called the Tesco club card.

At least that identifies you at the checkout and not before.

No - it identifies the card holder, not the purchaser . All the Tesco vouchers are in my wife's name - but I have a keyring version which I use. So when I buy stuff at Tesco, they aren't associating my purchases with me. I expect Tesco would like to do that, but at the same time allow us to use the same Clubcard account.

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Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:50 pm
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paulzolo wrote:
Amnesia10 wrote:
At least that identifies you at the checkout and not before.

No - it identifies the card holder, not the purchaser . All the Tesco vouchers are in my wife's name - but I have a keyring version which I use. So when I buy stuff at Tesco, they aren't associating my purchases with me. I expect Tesco would like to do that, but at the same time allow us to use the same Clubcard account.

Yes you are right, but what difference would it make being able to take you to the card if your wife sends you in to get tampons or similar? I appreciate that with data mining techniques that they can discover other facts about us that might be more obscure.

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Wed Nov 06, 2013 5:34 am
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