You might be surprised. When asked such a question, people may think the government, FBI, their mom perhaps…well, after recent reports, it gets even crazier than that: Mannequins.

It all seems unbelievably impossible, but according to recent reports, this is what has been happening, especially during the holiday season. Clever retailers purchase these $5,000 mannequins and scatter them throughout their stores… for surveillance? Not necessarily.

It turns out store mannequins are now being used for reasons besides showing off what’s hot in store. Just like Facebook now has the technology to recognize users’ faces, the same concept applies here. Small cameras are placed within the  pupil, making it seem like any ordinary mannequin. This advantage allows store retailers to gather important marketing information.

With the help of face recognition technology, the mannequins are able to track and observe the age, gender, and even race of shoppers. The gathered information is then used to help retailers give future consumers the best shopping experience. Almax, one of the world’s leading mannequins manufacturing industry, refuses to specify companies that use their products, but promises that footage will only be used for shopping purposes only.

It’s not only these mannequins that may be invading your privacy. In August 2011, Facebook bought Instagram, the popular photo-sharing app, for one billion dollars.  Purchasing a photo app has been on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s agenda for a while now, as he states that, “For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.”

The question is, what exactly is wrong with this?

Well now, Instagram has reversed several changes to its terms and conditions, creating massive controversy among its users because of the possibility that it may potentially use personal images to target advertising.

That’s right, now if Instagram likes your photos and wants to publish them on an advertisement of any sort, they can do so. Instagram is a public site, and thus all uploaded photos belong strictly to them. This news apparently wasn’t clearly announced, forcing Kevin Systrom, co-founder of the service, to issue an apology regarding the lack of notice.

With all this privacy invasion, people are becoming more irritated and concerned about what’s going on and, more importantly, what exactly to do. Mannequins in stores, Instagram changing its privacy settings, and perhaps further innovations in the future may all be breaching your privacy. What’s your take on this? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think!