Privacy and Digital Signage Advertising
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010What’s “digital signage”? Most people have heard of the term connected with billboards or other screens that have cameras (and facial-recognition technology) to watch people watching ads in order to improve their marketing. The digital signs log data such as gender, approximate age and how long someone looks at an advertisement. This is supposed to help build a better billboard — one that is tailored specifically to the individual standing in front of it. However, the data-gathering and surveillance practices raise substantial privacy questions.
One example of digital signage advertising is the Castrol project in the UK. The oil company bought the car registration data of millions of motorists. Then, the company set up giant digital billboards that scanned UK motorists’ license plates, ran the plates through a database and instantly displayed on the billboards what the best oil would be for that specific driver’s car. The license-plate scanning technology allowed each car to be read as if it were tagged with data, and that tagged data interacted with the intelligent computing technology in the billboard, allowing for advertising targeted to that specific driver. There was a public uproar, and the company quickly ended the project.
The advertising industry is aware of the significant privacy questions raised by the use of digital signage. POPAI (a digital signage industry association) released “Best Practices: Recommended Code of Conduct for Consumer Tracking Research,” but these best practices are not enough. Privacy and consumer groups have released two new sets of privacy protection frameworks for the digital signage industry. Read more »

