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Technology inspired by Israeli surveillance has led to camera-equipped billboards that can track viewers' faces to gather reliable viewing data for digital displays and screens.

The technology comes from TruMedia, which is testing the cameras in about 30 locations nationwide. A company in Paris offers similar tracking. Software behind each billboard can determine when a person is looking at the billboard, and what that person's age, gender and - soon - race, is.

The cameras use software that determines when a person is standing in front of a billboard, and which then analyzes facial features, such as the distance between the nose and the chin, to judge gender and age. Quividi and TruMedia Technologies both say they are not yet using race as a parameter, but they soon will. The billboards can also track how many people looked at the ad, and for how long, an important element for advertisers who are demanding more accountability from their agencies and media partners.

Not surprisingly, privacy groups are up in arms about the camera-equipped billboards. But the companies point out that everything they do is completely anonymous, and pictures of the people who look at the cameras are never stored in the system.