Digital billboards ‘spying on shoppers’

SHOPPERS are being spied on by surveillance cameras fitted in digital advertising billboards, it has emerged.

Using facial recognition software, these cameras can identify the age, gender and mood of the shoppers – while also vetting their behaviour to see how long they spend looking at an advert.

The digital screens – one of which can be found in the giant Westfield shopping centre in west London – can then display marketing

Daily Mail, Mail April 23 which caters for a specific audience. It is claimed the software can work out a person’s age within a five-year bracket.

According to the Sunday Times, Harrods has also used the technology, with cameras installed in advertising screens to record age, gender and ‘dwell time’. Companies including Ocean Outdoor – which promote the facial recognition system used in fifty screens around the UK – say they comply with data protection laws because no information on the identities of the shoppers is gathered.

Another company, French firm Quividi, stressed the images of shoppers – including children – are processed in milliseconds and then deleted permanently.

The revelation comes after a Mail investigation last week revealed shoppers have been secretly filmed by big stores including Tesco, Boots and the Co-op to try to make them spend more.