British retailer to use face-scanning technology for targeted ads

British retail giant Tesco says it is installing face-scanning technology at its grocery chain's gas stations to target advertisements to individual customers. The technology, after using a camera to identify a customer's gender and approximate age, will display an advertisement tailored to that particular demographic. "It's like something out of Minority Report," Simon Sugar, chief executive of Amscreen -- the developer of the technology -- told the BBC. "But this could change the face of British retail, and our plans are to expand the screens into as many supermarkets as possible." Privacy advocates like Nick Pickles of Big Brother Watch expressed concerns over the use of the technology. "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," he said. Tesco said the screens would be introduced in all of its 450 forecourts in the United Kingdom, while playing down privacy concerns. "No data or images are collected or stored and the system does not use eyeball scanners or facial-recognition technology," a spokeswoman said. Instead, the length of someone's hair could be used to work out their gender, she said.