UK billboard advertisers abusing personal data, report

Billboards using high definition cameras to identify gender, age and mood of passers-by, plus data harvested from mobile phones, all without consent says Big Brother Watch

Advertisers are using data gathered from millions of phones in the UK to decide which adverts to display on billboards in various locations across the country.

That's according to a new analysis [pdf] by Big Brother Watch, a London-based civil liberties group, which details ways advertisers are using lessons learned from mobile ads to show tailored ads to different types of individuals in the real world.

The report, called The Streets are Watching, highlights how targeted ads are no longer restricted to our personal feeds but have started to infiltrate our physical public life.

"We've uncovered new ways in which millions of people ' s movements and behaviours are tracked to target us with ads on the streets, resulting in some of the most intrusive advertising surveillance we ' ve ever seen in the UK," said Jake Hurfurt, head of research and investigations at Big Brother Watch.

According to the research, marketers can create customised advertising profiles of pedestrians based on their specific GPS position, gender and age demographics, plus behavioural data such as how they engage with various apps.

Digital billboards may be programmed to display many messages, in contrast to conventional paper billboards, which have adverts printed on vinyl. A lot of them also feature high-definition cameras that allow them to peer down on the unwary public.

Then, algorithms attempt to identify a person's face, physical attributes, and even what they could be wearing in order to personalise adverts for individuals who are strolling down the street or shopping in malls.

According to the research, two major billboard operators in the UK, Ocean Outdoor and Clear Channel, depend on face recognition software produced by the French firm Quividi.

The company claims that its technology is able to simultaneously scan up to 100 faces and determine the amount of time an individual spent in close proximity to or paid attention to an advertisement.

Additionally, it makes an effort to determine details such as age, gender and mood.

This data, when paired with information on crowd size and people ' s attention on ads, may be used to trigger adjustments that target audiences on a large scale.

Although the approach is favoured by advertisers due to its effectiveness, the report contends that the widespread collection of user data raises serious privacy issues.

One of the primary issues with companies utilising data-gathering tools to customise billboards is that it "erodes the concept of public places," says Princeton University computer science professor Arvind Narayanan.

"It is hard to have spontaneous and casual social interactions with strangers when you're staring at content targeted at you and you know you're being surveilled," Narayanan told Motherboard.

A Quividi spokeswoman told Motherboard that its software relies on face detection rather than facial recognition.

"These are two different technologies. Face detection only looks for the presence of a face whereas facial recognition looks for and identifies a particular person."

Big Brother Watch also draws attention to basic issues with "blanket consent", which were previously only associated with digital ecosystems. These same worries now apply to pedestrians who are just trying to go home or around town, according to the report.

"Consent cannot be meaningfully given to any of these data processes, as an individual is often in the sight of the cameras linked to the billboards or tablets before they are alerted to the processing and have the option to walk away," the report reads.

"This data is being gathered not just to work out if an ad campaign was successful but to alter how people experience reality without their explicit consent, all in an attempt to make more sales."