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Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

latimes.com

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Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#171

Post by birracerveza »

a_imho wrote: post #149
birracerveza wrote: post #107

Where I live we have laws in place that criminalize stalking. Why isn't this considered stalking?

Maybe you implicitly agree to their ToS when you enter a partner store? It's a technical detail of creative lawyering. They must have covered the legal aspects and factored in the fines in case they get a slap on the wrist. I guess it is the same thin line you have between tax evasion and tax optimization and Google has a nearly unlimited budget to try to move this line in their favor.

But it's not like agreeing to a ToS allows you to do illegal things, stalking being one of them. And yes, the definition keeps fitting more and more Google's tracking methods.

I know that I sound dramatic, but all of these kind of things that we have let Google do would be considered HIGHLY illegal if instead of a company it was a single, private individual.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#172

Post by rjtavares »

codedokode wrote: post #141
hagakure0c wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sooner or later people will start to revolt and either go back to use semi-anonymous cash or truly anonymous payment systems like bitcoin. Google and advertising will then be in the dark.

Would not it be easier to make a law forbidding transferring personal information without a person's consent? Not opt-out, but rather opt-in scheme. Companies like Google just exploit a lack of regulation.

As usual, the European Union has some good intentions in this area:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/10/whatsapp-...

We'll see how that goes. I have a feeling most users will just opt in without much care.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#173

Post by kalmi10 »

0x45696e6172 wrote: post #169
hagakure0c wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sooner or later people will start to revolt and either go back to use semi-anonymous cash or truly anonymous payment systems like bitcoin. Google and advertising will then be in the dark.

How anonymous is cash really? All money bills have serial numbers that could automatically be correlated with ATMs and your time/location data.

I read an article about a year ago that about 50% of China's ATM had this serial number recording capability, and that at least some compuer-connected cash counters had it too. I was highly sceptical, but then I found a cash counter that had this capability listed on its specifications page. I don't have time right now to find it again, but they are out there and it's already being done at some places. Okay, maybe not correlated, but recorded for sure.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#174

Post by omginternets »

hueving wrote: post #159
vmarsy wrote: post #69

The European Union is often made fun of with "the Americans innovate, the EU regulates", but in the meantime GDPR[1] is coming into force in 2018 > The primary objectives of the GDPR are to give citizens and residents back control of their personal data [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regu...

Doesn't this fall squarely into "the Americans innovate, the EU regulates"? Whether that saying is derogatory or not obviously depends on your point of view, but this new regulation isn't contradictory to the saying.

The point was that it's usually said in a derogatory fashion, insinuating that European innovation suffers as a result of this.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#175

Post by kuschku »

H4CK3RM4N wrote: post #113
Moru wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany is one of the few countries that has recently seen the reality of what tracking can lead to if the wrong people end up in power. So the question is, do you trust Trump or whoever comes after him? My main gripe with shopping in Germany is everyone is standing there at the cash-register trying to find the correct ammount of cash to pay. There is a large amount of different coins you have to sorth through and th…

Was there really any need to include a remark comparing Trump to Hitler?

(a) it’s not about Hitler, but the StaSi/MfS, the East German internal spy agency

(b) it’s not necessarily about Trump – but considering the US has elected Trump, and considering how many freedoms Trump has tried to erase already, what’s if someone worse comes after Trump?

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#176

Post by inesta »

cyberhigh wrote: post #28
inesta wrote: post #11

Hmm I was wondering how some stores show up on Google maps even though I did not use Google maps to get to those places. God damm Google.

That is because you have location services enabled on your phone. Google collects your phones location with this on. You can see the details by going to your location history.

well i do have location services on, but on my iphone. i dont have google maps open even in the background. i have background app refresh off for google maps too. i really dont see how google could get that info. apple maybe.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#177

Post by inesta »

dragonwriter wrote: post #49
inesta wrote: post #11

Hmm I was wondering how some stores show up on Google maps even though I did not use Google maps to get to those places. God damm Google.

> Hmm I was wondering how some stores show up on Google maps even though I did not use Google maps to get to those places. Isn't that just advertising?

sure, but these are small local convenience stores. i doubt they would advertise on google maps.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#178

Post by morganvachon »

bonzini wrote: post #155
AznHisoka wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MasterCard and Visa not only make money from each credit card transaction but to add insult to injury, they make money selling that transaction data as well! That's what I call a ludicrous business.

Is this also true of Amex (which makes more money from each credit card transaction than Visa and Mastercard)?

Just an uninformed guess, but I'd say that 70% figure probably covers Visa/MasterCard but not Amex or Discover, based on what I've observed working in retail in the past.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#179

Post by skummetmaelk »

awinter-py wrote: post #19

I think everyone remembers the first ad to follow them around multiple websites. For me it was an ASPCA campaign. The next version of that experience will be researching a purchase and where to get it, then seeing ads on the way that are customized to (a) the product you're buying and (b) your preferences. If you're 55 you'll get michael jordan advising you to buy nikes. If you're 35 it will be Noel Gallagher (air no…

>The good news is at a certain point the competition for eyeballs will become so fierce that the ads become honest & informative.

How exactly would that transition work? If anything, the trend has been going the other way for the past century.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#180

Post by morganvachon »

metafunctor wrote: post #110
coldtea wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cash is no silver bullet. Even if you buy with cash only, you can and will still be profiled. Doesn't have to be a silver bullet. Just to be better off than without cash.

Nothing ever is a silver bullet, which was sort of my point. I was responding to “the only way to break the circle is to purchase with cash”, which just is not enough if your goal is to not end up in a database with your buying behaviour tabulated and analysed. Better? Clearly. But it is neither sufficient nor necessary to break the circle.

Honestly, these days the only way to avoid ending up in someone's database somewhere is to go 100% off grid. While that's still technically feasible, it's becoming more and more difficult to do, and it's still not an absolute guarantee. There are cameras in supposedly "off grid" campsites, and cell towers pretty much everywhere.
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