Mall and store ads may be watching you back

Stop and watch an advertisement on a closed-circuit TV screen in a mall or big-box store and there is a growing chance the ad is watching you, too.

Small cameras can now be embedded in the screen or hidden around it, tracking who looks at the screen and for how long.



The makers of the tracking systems say the software can determine the viewer's gender, approximate age range and, in some cases, ethnicity — and can change the ads accordingly.

That could mean razor ads for men, cosmetics ads for women and video-game ads for teens.

Experiment by standing if front of one of these closed-circuit TV ads and see if the ad changes to something more suited to your gender and age.

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