Tesco, the biggest British retailer, is all set to install screens at the petrol stations to scan the faces of the customers for tailoring advertising according to their gender and age.

The third biggest super market chain in the world is going to install hi-tech screens at 450 petrol stations in the country. Amscreen is the digital advertising agency which developed the specific technology that will now help Tesco to execute it. Simon Sugar, the chief executive of Amscreen, informed that the scanning devices would be similar to what people had watched in the sci-fi film, Minority Report (2002), directed by none other than Steven Spielberg.

Mr Sugar was talking to The Grocer as he informed that the scanning technology might change the way British retail performs. He also said that the plan was to expand those screens in as many supermarkets as feasible. The technology works with the shoppers' faces getting detected as they approach the tills. The faces will identify the individual gender as well as their approximate age. The adverts will be targeted according to the demographic group.

On the contrary, Tesco's decision for using the technology called OptimEyes has already been criticised by privacy campaigners who have demanded that the customers must be informed whenever they are scanned in the manner described. Nick Pickles is a member of Big Brother Watch, a group which is engaged in privacy campaigns. Mr Pickles said that scanning customers without their permission would be a big consent issue.

On the other hand, Amscreen has claimed that the technology is way different from being intrusive by any means. They said that the technology met relevant data protection and privacy requirements. An AFP spokesperson insisted that the screens would not use eyeball scanners or facial recognition. Nor does it identify individual people in any manner. The technology, on the other hand, estimates if the scanned person is a man or a woman and the estimated age, she said.