It sounds like it’s straight out of a spy novel or a sci-fi flick where Big Brother is watching, but whichever you choose, it’s close up, personal and all done with mannequins.

Fashion Brand retailers are deploying mannequins equipped with EyeSee, a camera that uses facial recognition technology that will gather shopper information, including age, race, gender, what displays are looked at and for how long.

EyeSee mannequins look no different from most other mannequins, are made of polystyrene contours, with improbable poses and blank faces, and the only hidden exception is the camera that is planted in one eye collecting the viable data from unwary shoppers.


Image via Gizmodo

“It’s spooky,” said Luca Solca, head of luxury goods research at Exane BNP Paribas in London. “You wouldn’t expect a mannequin to be observing you.”

Facial recognition technology is used by law enforcement agencies to identify criminals and terrorist. The U.S. Department of State operates one of the largest face recognition systems in the world with over 75 million photographs that is actively used for visa processing.

EyeSee is sold by Almax, a leading manufacturer of mannequins, with a price tag (News - Alert) of $5,000 each. Almax is hush-hush on which five retailers is currently using or ordering EyeSee mannequins, they did note that Benetton GroupSpA, Burberry and Nordstrom, who stated that facial recognition may be a step too far, are not using their EyeSee mannequins.

“It’s a changing landscape but we’re always going to be sensitive about respecting the customer’s boundaries,” said spokesman Colin Johnson.

The mannequin, which went on sale last December and is now being used in three European countries and the U.S., has led one outlet to adjust its window displays after revealing that men who shopped in the first two days of a sale spent more than women, according to Almax.

So the next time you go shopping, make sure you go up to the mannequin and smile, you never know who’ll be watching.