Facebook camera using face recognition to send you shopping deals is a bit handy, but more creepy

Facedeals, which uses photos uploaded to Facebook to spot shoppers, but has not been developed with Facebook, requires users to have authorised the service through the Facedeals Facebook app.

"Facebook check-ins are a powerful mechanism for businesses to deliver discounts to loyal customers, yet few businesses and fewer customers have realized it," said Nashville-based company Redpepper.

"A search for businesses with active deals in our area turned up a measly six offers.

"The odds we’ll ever be at one of those six spots are low - a strip club and photography studio among them - and the incentives for a check-in are not nearly enticing enough for us to take the time.

"So we set out to evolve the check-in and sweeten the deal, making both irresistible."

To show how the system would work the company behind the camera has released a video depicting a group of friends entering a bar, they're recognised by the camera and are then text deals for cheap drinks to their phones.

Some Facebook users have reacted with alarm and scorn to the idea:

"Somewhere, not very distant, I can hear HAL & Skynet whispering words of encouragement," said one commenter on The Daily Mail.

"Haha, enjoy your police state! Seriously, it's pretty hiliarious [sic] the way this is going. If the government tried to do something like this, everyone would scream about how wrong it is. The second a company does it though, oh, it's innovative," said another.

Image via Getty