South Korea mall says 'Hello shopper, nice to see you'

Wednesday, October 10, 2012 - 04:36 Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images People walk through a mall in Seoul's Gangnam District in Seoul, South Korea. Here's an idea: Put kiosks throughout a mall armed with facial recognition cameras that figure out a shopper's gender and age. The Wall Street Journal says it's happening now at the International Finance Center Mall in Seoul, South Korea. The system then makes shopping recommendations and will soon generate customized ads. The demographic data is being gathered, but the company involved says there's no personal information. Chester Wisniewski, at the online security firm Sophos, "The creepy factor to it all is that the technology being used isn’t really all that different than the technology that could be used to more pinpoint who you actually are or potentially record you." He says it's not much a leap between tech that recognizes you in the mall to tech that links that with your social media profile. Which is happening now in the U.S. although ...

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