Directions: In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-F to fit into each of the numbered blanks. There is one extra choice, which does not fit in any of the blanks. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)
If you shop at Westfield, you’ve probably been scanned and recorded by dozens of hidden cameras built into the centers’ digital advertising billboards. The semi-camouflaged cameras can determine not only your age and gender but your mood, cueing up tailored advertisements within seconds, thanks to facial detection technology.
Westfield’s Smartscreen network was developed by the French software firm Quividi back in 2015. (41) And once the billboards have your attention they hit record, sharing your reaction with advertisers. Quividi says their billboards can distinguish shoppers’ gender with 90% precision, five categories of mood from “very happy to very unhappy” and customers’ age within a five-year bracket.
Mood is a particularly valuable insight for advertisers, revealing shoppers’ general sentiment towards a brand and how they feel in particular stores at certain times of the day. (42)
(43) Scentre Group, Westfield Australia’s parent company, emphasises that all data collected is anonymous and that they are using facial detection, not facial recognition technology (FRT). This means generic information such as a shopper’s age and gender is collected rather than the technology using photo-matching databases to identify who customers are. A spokesperson would not confirm whether or not Westfield would consider using FRT in the future.
(44) Quividi’s host of international clients include Telstra, 7-Eleven, Coca-Cola, oOH Media and HSBC bank.
Terry Hartmann, vice president of Cognitec Asia Pacific, the company that develops “market-leading face recognition technologies for customers and government agencies around the world”, says using facial detection commercially is no different to Facebook’s manipulation of users’ online search history for targeted advertising — “You’re not identifying who that person is, you’re just identifying the characteristics of that person. (45)”
A. There are now more than 1,600 billboards installed into 41 Westfield centers across Australia and New Zealand.
B. But Microsoft has acknowledged the concerns about FRT and called for greater government regulation of the use of this technology.
C. Their discreet cameras capture blurry images of shoppers and apply statistical analysis to identify audience demographics.
D. That’s no different to Facebook popping up ads you might be interested in and social media picking up people based on their clicking habits or the shopping that they’ve done.
E. Retail companies are increasingly turning to facial detection and facial recognition software to attract and engage a distracted audience.
F. Unlike gender and age, mood is harder to determine, sitting at around 80% accuracy.
