The Sunday Times reports that the system, created by Cambridge-based company NEC IT Solutions, works by scanning the faces of customers as they enter a store and checking them against a database.

 

The staff can then be alerted via computer, iPad or smartphone - along with details such as clothes size, favorite buys and spending history.

 

The system is currently being tried out in unnamed designer boutiques（精品店） and hotels in the UK, the US and the Far East. Previously³, the company has designed software to help identify terrorists and criminals for security services.

 

'We're trialling the system in general retail⁴, which would include hotels and anything where the public are walking in,' NEC IT Solutions vice¹ president explained to the paper.

 

'The luxury end of the market is quite interested in it - they're interested in VIPs.'

 

De Silva also added that they've addressed privacy concerns and found that most high-profile customers would be 'quite happy to have their information available because they want a quicker service, a better-tailored service or a more personally tailored service'.

 

But some shoppers are fighting back against unwanted surveillance.

 

The New York Times reports that Nordstrom had been testing technology that would allow them to track customers' Wi-Fi signals from their smartphones. This allowed the company to analyse how long a shopper spent in a particular area and to track shopper movements, as well as how many people that walked past the store decided⁵ to enter.

 

But the retailer⁶ reportedly stopped the pilot in May after customer complaints became too numerous. Other stores, however, continue to experiment with using new technology to target customers.

 

Synqera, a start-up in St. Petersburg, Russia, is selling software for checkout⁷ devices or computers that tailors marketing⁸ messages to a customer's gender⁹, age and mood, measured by facial recognition.

 

'If you are an angry man of 30, and it is Friday evening, it may offer you a bottle of whiskey,' said Ekaterina Savchenko, the company's head of marketing.

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