TruMedia says its facial-recognition billboards will never record video, it won't share with cops

Those billboards with facial-recognition-based tracking systems we mentioned last week caused quite a bit of consternation amongst those of us who value our privacy (read: everyone), but it at least one of the firms involved is engaging the debate and promising that it won't share any data it record. In a letter to the New York Times and a much longer, more boring version of the same letter sent to us, TruMedia Technologies says that none of its tech will ever record or store any video, only analyze frames and increment various demographic counters. TruMedia also says that no individually-identifiable information is ever stored, and that it'll never share any video or images with any private or governmental body. There's also mention of a standards body working to address methodologies and metrics for the tech. All excellent promises, sure, but we're never going to be entirely comfortable with this stuff, even if we live in an age of ubiquitous CCTV monitoring. Full letter after the break.

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"We applaud The New York Times Reporter Stephanie Clifford on her recent article about the advancement in audience measurement in the out-of-home advertising industry. She rightly states "In advertising these days, the brass ring goes to those who can measure everything."

Ms. Clifford is 100 percent correct. With the increased popularity of out-of-home advertising and the exponential growth of the digital signage industry (translating into billions of dollars), there has been no accurate measurement system in place. Television has Nielsen and radio has Arbitron, but the out-of-home industry has grown up quickly without an accurate and reliable third-party measurement solution. Our company, TruMedia Technologies, realized that need and has created a robust, scalable, turnkey audience measurement solution.

In the article, Ms. Clifford also brought up the issue of privacy and the opportunity for measurement companies to save and use individual images. This issue is a critical one for TruMedia, the marketing and research industries and the public. TruMedia Technologies has a standing commitment to the protection of privacy.

Our own privacy policy states that we do not and will NEVER engage in any video recording and that the data we collect is anonymous and will only be reported in the aggregate. No individually identifiable data is ever collected. Images from our sensors are processed and converted in real-time into counts (how many) and durations (how long). Using complex proprietary algorithms these counts are further assigned to specific demographic categories such as gender and age-group. No images are ever and will ever be stored for use, review or sharing with any private or governmental body.

To further advance these principals, we are working closely with the Out-of-home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) to help develop a comprehensive set of standards that address both methodology and metrics for the out-of-home measurement industry including the buying, planning and selling community. Within those standards will come a quality control element that every vendor and advertising agency must agree to in order to use our products and services.

We further challenge the industry to adopt a standard, akin to our own that categorically prohibits the storing of images or any other personally identifying information without prior consumer consent. This will allow our industry to grow and provide responsible currency measurement of out-of-home media without compromising the important principals of privacy in our society."

[Gr1zz @ Jun 10th 2008 6:08PM]

Hello,
My little girl was just abducted. She is X years young, has X hair, and is my whole world. Here is a photo, please share info with cops.

I rest my case.

[Boynamedsue @ Jun 10th 2008 6:18PM]

you beat me to it. I'd be all for uploading abducted child photos and only storing info in the case of a hit.

[Wwhat @ Jun 11th 2008 8:46AM]

Yeah and terrorist, and aggregation of blacks, and known anti-bush protesters, and and and.. in fact why not just give control to the whitehouse computers eh. it won't lead to an icky society AT ALL, no no no, and if you think otherwise we'll know where to find you.

[Decoy @ Jun 10th 2008 6:09PM]

We won't record you or share these recordings (that we arn't making) with the cops. Hand on heart. Honest to God. We promise.

[Hoos @ Jun 10th 2008 6:21PM]

Just like ISPs promised not to share data.

Please.

We're giving up any sense of dignity and privacy. And only for the sake of gimmicks.

Just as Gr1zz points out, someone somewhere will find some way to "legitimize" this as a way to track people. "After all, your average person is already tracked by a camera 200 times a day.* So what's one more?"

________________
* No facts were injured in the making up of these statistics.

[Bloobie @ Jun 10th 2008 8:17PM]

What did you expect in a country where practically every major theater and venue has been renamed to reflect its corporate whoredom, aka sponsorship. We live in a state of Corporatism. :)

[foxdude0486 @ Jun 11th 2008 9:13AM]

I won't be satisfied till my a** is plastered on the wall advertising a before and doctored after picture of how well their zit cream works.

[erhan @ Jun 10th 2008 6:38PM]

Pretty soon we'll turn into the UK... :( :(

[matt @ Jun 10th 2008 6:43PM]

Yes, but you don't have an incompetent twat as the leader of the country, who is running out of time to stay in power.

Oh wait...

[erhan @ Jun 10th 2008 7:00PM]

@ Matt.

Don't get me wrong here. I like the UK, but when it comes down to privacy with cameras, the UK is a bad example.
I meant we are turning into the UK in the sense of CCTV.

The US has a the so called "patriot act" to deal with so its no better I guess.
I know we have a "twat" but I certainly didn't vote for him. :)

[matt @ Jun 10th 2008 6:42PM]

You know, I don't trust them. What a fucking suprise.

[Aguiluz @ Jun 10th 2008 6:48PM]

Well, there could be the "fine print." So yeah, there could be a f***ing surprise.

[teej @ Jun 10th 2008 6:50PM]

identifiable*

i know, i know...we can't edit posts, and you guys can't spell check.

[DarkPlaces @ Jun 11th 2008 11:35AM]

I for one am excited about it. It gives me a perfectly good excuse to wear a bandana over my face in public. "No officer, I'm not planning on robbing anything. Just hate commercials!"

[Krush @ Jun 10th 2008 7:02PM]

Just like traffic camera's I suppose ... but wait a min the traffic camera's are installed by the police!! Maybe I'll just come up with a reflective shield to hide from these billboards - cr@p - should have patented that before posting

[GBallew @ Jun 10th 2008 7:08PM]

How 'bout that. Profiling at its greatest.

"You are a white male, early to mid 30's...balding...you must want to see (insert advertisement here)"

"You are a black male, tall, wearing baggy clothing...afro...you must want to see (insert advertisement here)"

wtf!?!?

[Krush @ Jun 10th 2008 7:19PM]

Now THAT would be cool .... imagine George W Bush walks up to this billboard and the he gets recommended for a "male enhancement" product :D ....

[Greg @ Jun 10th 2008 7:29PM]

Imagine John McCain walking by and it advertizes Botox.

Or Barak Obama (Or however you spell his name) and a Ludacris CD ad pops up.

Now those would even be some sweet photoshop jobs! lol

[meist3r @ Jun 11th 2008 6:03AM]

What about: white couple, mid 30s, good clothes, healthy skin color = There is a new restaurant across the block

black youth, mid 20s, raggedy face = get a job in the army, NOW!

It's not that much the advertisement THAT I will see and more the advertisements that I WON'T see with these things. It's ridiculous this whole ad thing turns into a Stephen Spielberg Minority Report kind of experience right now.

[Dr M Free @ Jun 10th 2008 7:16PM]

UMMMM, right..... They'll also pull out and not get you pregnant.

[danimal @ Jun 10th 2008 7:17PM]

So, if I should happen to walk up to one and smash it with a sledgehammer - they wouldn't share images of me doing it with the police or any authorities? Excellent.

[Brandon Bradley @ Jun 10th 2008 7:35PM]

I guess it is time to start wearing a motorcycle helmet with mirrored visor everywhere. Or perhaps it is time to get one of these...

http://www.slashgear.com/surveillance-cam-blinder-2010369.php

[Reader @ Jun 10th 2008 9:01PM]

That's pretty cool. I would make one if I lived in the U.K.

[Jason @ Jun 10th 2008 7:32PM]

WHO CARES if they won't share with the cops!

They are gonna share with anybody and everybody that sees you walk past that billboard!

What happens when you're all, "Hey baby, how you doin'?" and she looks up and sees that the nearest billboard has decided that the ad you're mostly likely to respond to is one for...an adult movie store? Then just after you blithely joke your way out of that it changes to a pitch for...Nair? And as you stand there dumbstruck it changes to...

...corrective arch inserts? ...Magic (R) cards?...Preparation H?...Valtrex?...chamomile tea?

No. Oh, no.

[rlynd3 @ Jun 10th 2008 8:11PM]

Ok Enough already with the "Minority Report" fantasies/fear! That is not the point of this tech.

The point is to record the demographics of a particular location so that advertiser can sell that space for more. Even if they were to use this tech in junction with changing/digital billboards it would be pointless to try and change it every time someone walks past. At best they would change the displays to correctly target the changing demographics throughout the day/week.

Relax, all this means is that areas you visit often will have more appropriate advertising.

[Greg @ Jun 10th 2008 8:31PM]

This is just the first step my friend. I don't doubt that one day this will lead to an advertizement space somewhere changing to your *demographical* interests.

There's always a first step for everything, this one is just a little more obvious than people like you realize.

No, this is not paranoid ramblings either, technology like this has been shown and described in movies and text for years.

[Reader @ Jun 10th 2008 9:03PM]

Honestly, always better to be safe than sorry.

[Xepol @ Jun 10th 2008 9:23PM]

And I will be able to tell their billboards apart from the police's billboards how again?

[UHUH @ Jun 10th 2008 9:45PM]

Does this mean colt 45 malt liquor billboards will only be posted in black neighborhoods? Oh wait! It already is.

[Starvine @ Jun 10th 2008 10:26PM]

For the time and cost of developing this technology, wouldn't it be more economical for the company to just hire a 16 year-old and give him a clipboard for a few weeks?

White guy...white guy...black guy...Korean chick...transvestite...

[Greg @ Jun 10th 2008 11:12PM]

I'll do it.

It'd be fun.

If somebody asked me what I was doing, I'd say:
"Profiling your ass...there we go, another asshole"

...it'd be amazing!

[Wwhat @ Jun 11th 2008 8:57AM]

You can't trust those whities, they'd go home, sleep all day, then put in some fake numbers :)

[corgilabsG @ Jun 10th 2008 11:35PM]

we won't record your face, and just so you trust us, we will disable ... the recording feature we .... developed for recording .... people's faces....

..... uuhhh. ya..

[Nathaniel White @ Jun 11th 2008 2:54AM]

Call me crazy.. but am I the only one who seems to understand the fact that when I am in public I have no privacy? Taking a picture while in public is different then sharing personal info about my surfing abilities..

When will people learn that privacy ends when you leave the home?

[Rob @ Jun 11th 2008 5:06AM]

Sure, and stalking isn't a crime...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalking

[meist3r @ Jun 11th 2008 6:08AM]

Then you usually run around town naked? That's another type of privacy ... it's called not interfering with other people's space. They don't want to see you naked, you don't want to be seen naked. Privacy.

And if you really think that all our personal lives are free game when outside then I whole heartedly condole you because you are a puppet and do think exactly what control fanatics want you to think.

This is a fight we haven't even started fighting yet, so why give up already?

[Wwhat @ Jun 11th 2008 9:06AM]

Actually you DO have a right on privacy outside, the law stipulates it in most countries, although it's obviously a different set of rights from private spaces.
But yes, we have expectations and at least in democratic countries the public (hopefully) determines for themselves they have some rights, the people own the government, not the government the people, and never do the commercial companies own the people. If you wish you can sign your life away to some corporation though, feel free.

Visit www.epic.org www.eff.org and www.aclu.org some time maybe.

[d840 @ Jun 11th 2008 3:37AM]

The first time I read the headline, I kinda missed the comma, which changes the ENTIRE meaning, and is probably much more accurate:

"TruMedia says its facial-recognition billboards will never record video it won't share with cops"

Which means that it would always record video to share with the cops.
Those tricky double-negatives............

[vannyx @ Jun 11th 2008 7:41AM]

they will just say they are doing to fight child porn or child abductions and people will raise up asking why wasnt this done before and praise them for it. Then one day you will get arrested because your facial reaction was consistant with what the current incombent in office wanted to see when you were looking at his campaign ad.

[Mitch @ Jun 11th 2008 9:20AM]

MINORITY REPORT ANYONE?

[Wwhat @ Jun 11th 2008 9:16AM]

I must say I do applaud the clear language of the company, so clear that it would stand in court (assuming that letter is signed or on company paper and confirmed real), there are many companies (and in most cases all governments) who would not dare to speak so clearly.
Not that I trust it much, nor like the concept, but I applaud them for making a clear statement of positive intent rather than saying "shut up, it's great, deal with it, or are you a terrorist?"

[Idiot @ Jun 12th 2008 10:33AM]

Break it with a stick. If they make more, break them with more sticks.

[JS @ Jun 12th 2008 8:41PM]

What is all the hype about privacy? I dont have nothing to hide record me come search me. Everyone have a problem with it untill it help to solve your mother or sisters rape, or catch a serial criminal. The hell are we going to do with it at the precicnt laugh, call you, come to your house and tell you we saw you? Every day on my way home i see jackasses driving. Do i get their license plate, do a record search, and go to their house the next morning to ask them to explain their actions??? Please i have better things to do. Grow up America.

[AJ @ Jun 18th 2008 2:19AM]

Surveilance cameras are becoming ubiquitous. This is just an early example of the sorts of issues we'll have to deal with as our faces are recorded on more and more cameras. There are some pretty neat technologies coming out that may keep both sides happy - keep innocent bystander's images private, while still making the captured data useful.

Check out this article for more details:

http://inhardfocus.com/2008/05/costs-and-benefits-of-face-recognition.html