The all-seeing eye: are you ready for this?

Is this a road we — as a society—want to go down?

Shops with television screens and cameras in the window that spy on you, classify you, and then send you an advertisement. Devices that scan the number of people in front of a screen, guess their age and gender and then attempt to adjust the impact of an advertisement to them. As in the so-called science fiction movie Minority Report, more and more of which we are seeing transferred to everyday life, British-based supermarket Tesco is now rolling out Optimeyes, in association with Amscreen and Quividi, in some 450 of its service station outlets with the aim of assessing the impact of its advertising, based on demographics.

Before we sound the alarm bells, let’s take a look at the technology in question: this is an instantaneous categorization, based on what the camera is able to distinguish, carried out in real time, without recourse to any data base, and without storing the information gathered in the moment. In other words, this isn’t a case of “Okay, I see from my data base that we have Enrique Dans in the store today, I’m going to show him an advertisement that will catch his attention, and then I’m going to make sure that he is subjected to advertisements every time he looks at a screen.” Instead, what we have here is more along the lines of: “this guy is 6.3", seems to be a man, and probably between 40 and 50, so let’s try an advertisement on him that fits his demographic.”

So it’s not as scary as it might at first seem. When all is said and done, this is not really any different to what is taking place on our computer screens at all hours, assuming that you do not use ad blockers. Nevertheless, this latest technological development raises a number of interesting questions, the first of which is: are we really ready for inanimate objects to spy on us and to attempt to establish our defining characteristics?

We already have mannequins and shelves in stores that capture information about customers, following their eyes and putting together analyses; there are also countless cameras in our streets and highways… more and more just about every move we make is being scrutinized by somebody who is trying to increase efficiency or maximize the reach of something.

The second question is basically how long it will take before rather than simply capturing basic data, the camera is connected to a data base that contains our name and file, obtained from any of the social networks we use, and the Minority Report circle is squared.

The technology is already there: if Tesco doesn’t do it, this will presumably be because it believes that people are still not accustomed to this kind of technology, and that it could cause alarm. But have no doubts, it’s on the company’s list of things to do, and this first step is simply a way of looking for wider acceptance.

Seen from a techno-fatalistic perspective, one response to Tesco’s initiative could be: “this is where we are, the technology is available, and if you don’t like it, go and live in the countryside.” Similarly, we could see it in generational terms, something that older people might find alarming, but that their sons and daughters would see as normal. Nevertheless, it is worth asking the seemingly absurd question—because nobody is asking it and nobody is on the other side to answer it—as to whether we, as a society really want to go down this road.