Digital Signage Threatens Privacy

A new report presented at the Federal Trade Commission's Privacy Roundtable in Berkeley (CA) warns of threats to consumer privacy posed by new tracking technology incorporated into some digital signage.

Produced by an organization called the World Privacy Forum, the report also presents a recommended code of conduct crafted by an out-of-home advertising industry organization, the Point of Purchase Advertising Institute (POPAI), to avoid transgressions that could inspire consumer backlash. The new report, titled "The One-Way-Mirror-Society: Privacy Implications of Digital Signage," mentions a number of "mid-range" tracking technologies. It includes technology that allows digital signage to track heat paths (showing a consumer's movement, for example, around a retail environment) and separate technology that tracks the consumer's gaze, to determine what part of the sign is most interesting. But the most controversial technology currently being used allows digital signage to scan the facial features and other physical characteristics of passers-by to determine their age, gender and ethnicity.