You might think that it is kind of creepy when your email starts placing advertisements in the sidebar based on things you’ve been talking about in your messages. Or maybe you’re already used to it. Well, get ready for a new level of personal infringement. Now the trend is using your face.

Applying “Face Recognition” software is already very common on social networks. Facebook allows your friends to tag you in photos by automatically recognizing your face in pictures. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College found out how to use Facebook profile pictures and facial recognition software to match people’s names to their faces, with a success rate of 31%, according to according to CNet report, in August. But this is old news.  Last week, Google+ announced that in the next few weeks a similar system will automatically look for your face in your friends' pictures.

Although everyone talks about privacy in social media when these kinds of announcements are made, in offline life Face Recognition is growing fast.

There exists a display ad that changes for each person that walks through it. The sensors on this digital sign can detect the gender and age of a person and show products according to his or her taste. It’s a new Intel technology, called Intel Audience Impression Metrics Suite. It can detect the number of viewers, determine their gender and age group, and measure dwell time. This data can be used in real-time to adapt on-screen content based on the demographics of current viewers.

Going further, there is an app, SceneTap, available for iPhone and Android, which uses Intel technology to allow users to check out the crowd at clubs and bars, to know the male and female ration and the average age of the crowd before going out.

All this new technology, just as the software used to advertise in your email, can’t harm your privacy as long as the data collected is anonymous.  The question now is how the companies are going to keep not only your personal information, but also your face, safe from malicious purposes.