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Published: June 2010

The one-way mirror of digital signage

World Privacy Forum has issued a report on digital signage networks, which are electronic monitoring systems that record and store video information. They include facial recognition cameras in grocery stores, interactive billboards that record data about consumers, and people-counting sensors mounted on doorways.

According to the World Privacy Forum, digital signage technologies are gathering increasing amounts of information about consumers, without their knowledge or consent. These technologies are designed to monitor and record how they look, behaviors, and personal characteristics such as gender and ethnicity.

Download the report entitled "Privacy Implications of the New Digital Signage Networks"

Also, Consumer Action has signed onto principles on best practices for digital signage. Download the principles here

Below is an excerpt from the report:

Audience Surveillance and Measurement for Marketing

One of the primary selling points for those wanting to deploy digital signage is that the screens are not just a one-way technology going from screen to consumer. The most advanced digital signage installations have screens concealing a host of technologies that gather information from the rooms they are placed in and the people who come within view of the screens, and then respond accordingly, often instantly. Digital signs can record the customers near them, monitor room temperature, check carbon dioxide levels, and more. For example, it is now an unremarkable feature for a digital signage installation to show ads targeted to the specific gender or age of a person looking at the screen as the person is standing in front of it.

To accomplish this, digital signs are equipped with sensors and/or cameras or webcams built directly into the screen,51 that can capture and record large amounts of information about who is looking at the sign, for how long, and at what time of the day. Then sophisticated video analytics create a demographic profile of the gender, age, and ethnicity among other characteristics. In some cases, multiple cameras are used, including cameras outside the screens. As seen in Figure 3, cameras can be tucked inconspicuously into end cap displays, on ceilings, and elsewhere.

It is important to remember that digital signage networks can involve an entire video architecture, one that includes existing security cameras. The audience measurement ecosystem may also use other shopper measurement systems in addition to the digital signage.

Technologies that Measure Ethnicity, Age, and Gender

While it may come as a substantial surprise to consumers, it is a current business practice to use advanced video analysis technologies to determine a consumer’s age, gender, and sometimes ethnicity to target ads and marketing directly to a particular customer. This technology is not new, but it did reach a maturation point in 2008/2009. Often called advanced audience measurement features, or advanced video analytics, the technology is used to determine a customer’s ethnicity, gender, and age using facial recognition software and other techniques.53 The technology has reportedly reached about a 90 percent accuracy rate.

Initially, the technology began as simple gaze tracking, but expanded into the demographic uses. Cognovision, one company selling this technology, states in its materials that it measures five areas of consumer behavior and characteristics:

• Actual Impressions - The number of people who look at your displays
• Length of Impressions - How long people look for
• Potential Audience Size - The number of people who walk by
• Dwell Time - How long people stay near your displays
• Anonymous Demographics - Demographics of your audience (gender and age bracket)

The point of creating demographic profiles is twofold: one, to determine how many people are watching the ad on the digital signage, and what ages, genders, and ethnicities they are; and two, to target the advertising based on that information.

For More Information

World Privacy Forum

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Consumer Protection   ♦   Privacy/Rights   ♦