Tesco’s announcement this week that it’ll be installing face-scanning advertising screens in all its 450 petrol stations has detectably raised eyebrows and hackles among many of us who don’t necessarily mind watching a screen, but really don’t want to be watched by one.

The screens are part of an ad network managed by Amscreen, part of Alan Sugar’s business empire run by his son Simon. They use technology from Quividi, a Paris-based company specialising in identifying people’s gender and age from video images.