Tesco to use face-scanning technology at tills, show ads

Britain's biggest retailer, Tesco, is to install screens at its petrol stations that scan customers' faces so that advertising can be tailored to their age and gender.

The world's third biggest supermarket chain will install the hi-tech screens at the tills of its 450 British petrol stations, according to Amscreen, the digital advertising firm that developed the technology.

Amscreen chief executive Simon Sugar admitted that the devices were "like something out of Minority Report", the 2002 science-fiction movie directed by Steven Spielberg.

But he told The Grocer magazine: "This could change the face of British retail and our plans are to expand the screens into as many supermarkets as possible."

The screens detect the faces of shoppers approaching the tills and identify their gender and approximate age. They then display adverts targeted at that demographic group.

Privacy campaigners blasted Tesco's decision to use the "OptimEyes" technology and called on the retailer to inform customers when they are being scanned in this way.