A Plan UK billboard in London that knows your gender and age — creepy or cool?

[Starry Messenger]

http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/1136586--a-plan-uk-billboard-in-london-that-knows-your-gender-and-age-creepy-or-cool?bn=1

Sorry, this story is a couple of weeks old, but I vote "creepy"! The end of the article focuses on the potential for discrimination by "tastes", but I could see this going all kinds of wrong for discrimination by gender, race, orientation, and class.

Plan UK’s use of facial recognition software is creative and provocative by using different content for men and women to send a political message, says Teresa Scassa, Canada research chair in information law at the University of Ottawa. She sees it as “the edge of a big wave” of broad social issues that will be addressed in the near future.

But she worries about digital technology accumulating and layering personal information on top of a database of recognizable images. “The problem is the loss of control over our personal information,” she says. “It happens in so many contexts and is applied and matched behind the scenes, so it’s difficult to know as individuals what companies know about us.”

There is also potential for discrimination,” Scassa says. Someone identified as a young, affluent professional may be targeted for special discounts and promotions. Someone else, who shows up as a less desirable customer, may not get those same offers.

“You open the possibility of targeting products and services to classes of individuals while others will be excluded from opportunities. There is the risk of social alienation, profiling done by algorithms, it’s not perfect but it’s making a judgment of who you are and what you like.”

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Life imitates a theme of dystopian sci-fi

I have a problem with gender- and ethnicity-targeted advertising as it is - much less when it's thrust in our faces while walking around in public.

[Vincardog]

2. There have been "target audiences" as long as there has been advertising. This billboard is a

publicity stunt. The ramifications of corporations collecting private data for nefarious purposes a separate issue.

[saras]

3. Given how many young people DON'T "know" their gender, it seems pretty creepy

Hey, you, you're gonna be a M-F tranny, but you don't know it yet.

[Starry Messenger]

4. I think "tranny" has fallen out of usage, I'd use trans gender.

But I was thinking this too. A computer assigning you to a "gender" that you might not identify as is pretty outrageous. The problem with this "targeted marketing" is that is only reads your outsides and will reflect the biases of the people who program the billboards.

[saras]

5. I would too. Thank you. But I wouldn't expect such a machine to be so appropriate ;)

There are so many problems with it, I think anyone concerned about an existing social issue can find an application...

setting aside for a moment all the issues around what it tells you ...

People ARE going to look over your shoulder, and your "private" tastes are going to appear, whereas you may not WANT to be outed by a billboard. No matter what is being "outed", even where you buy your pants.

[MadrasT]

6. This is so offensive I don't know where to start. n/t

[woo me with science]

7. This sounds like the same technology that was in the news

a few years ago. I think the articles were saying that it was Comcast that wanted to use this in their cable boxes to target advertising to whoever was in the room at the time. If the box identified little children's forms in the room, it would air sugar cereal commercials and etc.

I think people were creeped out then by the idea of Comcast cameras in their living rooms. I haven't heard about it since.

I definitely put myself in the "considering it creepy" club, and positively invasive if the cameras come into private spaces.