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What Restaurants Know About You Before You Walk In

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Re: What Restaurants Know About You Before You Walk In

#31
post #14
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recent Android and iOS versions randomize the MAC when scanning.

True, but in Android's case, the implementation seems to be flawed: In our lab environment we observed that in addition to periodic global MAC addressed probe requests, we were able to force the transmission of additional such probes for all Android devices. First, anytime the user simply turned on the screen, a set of global probe requests were transmitted. An active user, in effect, renders randomization moot, elim…

The only model researchers found to do randomization correctly was the Cat S60

Amusingly enough, that's probably more because of an oversight by the manufacturer (who is probably just copying a reference design) --- they don't bother writing a "fixed MAC" and just leave the NVRAM blank, meaning the device doesn't actually have a MAC and generates a random one every time you turn WiFi on and off.

That's how it works on the Mediatek platforms that I'm more familiar with, and you'll find this is the case for a lot of the cheap Chinese unbranded phones. It's irritating when you need to connect to networks using MAC filtering, but I'm almost tempted to respond to all the "my MAC keeps changing" threads on XDA with "that's a feature, not a bug." ;-)

Re: What Restaurants Know About You Before You Walk In

#32

This is nothing. A Pizza shop in Oslo was busted back in May for using Facial recognition software on it's customers: > A crashed advertisement reveals the code of the facial recognition system used by a pizza shop in Oslo... Source: https://twitter.com/gamblelee/status/862307447276544000

I think people would be incredibly surprised how common this is. Heck, I've seen random billboards at Chicago bus stops have facial recognition cameras.

I predict this market to basically become more or less pervasive within 5-10 years.

Re: What Restaurants Know About You Before You Walk In

#33
post #32

This is nothing. A Pizza shop in Oslo was busted back in May for using Facial recognition software on it's customers: > A crashed advertisement reveals the code of the facial recognition system used by a pizza shop in Oslo... Source: https://twitter.com/gamblelee/status/862307447276544000

I think people would be incredibly surprised how common this is. Heck, I've seen random billboards at Chicago bus stops have facial recognition cameras. I predict this market to basically become more or less pervasive within 5-10 years.

I worked in digital signage advertising (fancy schmancy name for those screens in malls that show ads). Facial recognition was spreading throughout the industry when I was involved a few years ago. The cameras count the number of people in front of the sign, how long they look, and try to guess demographic info (age, gender, race). Everything we hate about online advertising... yeah these people want to make it part of physical life too.

Example of what I'm talking about: https://signbox.tv/digital-signage-products/digital-signage-...

Re: What Restaurants Know About You Before You Walk In

#34
post #33
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people would be incredibly surprised how common this is. Heck, I've seen random billboards at Chicago bus stops have facial recognition cameras. I predict this market to basically become more or less pervasive within 5-10 years.

I worked in digital signage advertising (fancy schmancy name for those screens in malls that show ads). Facial recognition was spreading throughout the industry when I was involved a few years ago. The cameras count the number of people in front of the sign, how long they look, and try to guess demographic info (age, gender, race). Everything we hate about online advertising... yeah these people want to make it part…

I would be interested to know how to spot cameras on devices such as these (presumably, they aren’t as obvious as a laptop camera). I checked the link, but didn’t go further than the first page.

Re: What Restaurants Know About You Before You Walk In

#35
post #32

This is nothing. A Pizza shop in Oslo was busted back in May for using Facial recognition software on it's customers: > A crashed advertisement reveals the code of the facial recognition system used by a pizza shop in Oslo... Source: https://twitter.com/gamblelee/status/862307447276544000

I think people would be incredibly surprised how common this is. Heck, I've seen random billboards at Chicago bus stops have facial recognition cameras. I predict this market to basically become more or less pervasive within 5-10 years.

The worst thing about that is that the billboard that you're talking about is for car insurance. Theres a camera built into the display and the animation tracks where your face is looking.

Re: What Restaurants Know About You Before You Walk In

#38
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in digital signage advertising (fancy schmancy name for those screens in malls that show ads). Facial recognition was spreading throughout the industry when I was involved a few years ago. The cameras count the number of people in front of the sign, how long they look, and try to guess demographic info (age, gender, race). Everything we hate about online advertising... yeah these people want to make it part…

I would be interested to know how to spot cameras on devices such as these (presumably, they aren’t as obvious as a laptop camera). I checked the link, but didn’t go further than the first page.

The one I saw was pretty obvious, more like cell phone camera obvious. Most people just don't look up or closely.

I imagine as awareness increases you'll see things like remote cameras zoomed in/etc.

To be fair the one I saw I only knew had a camera - I assumed it was for facial recognition, but I can't think of any other plausible reason for it.

Re: What Restaurants Know About You Before You Walk In

#39

This is nothing. A Pizza shop in Oslo was busted back in May for using Facial recognition software on it's customers: > A crashed advertisement reveals the code of the facial recognition system used by a pizza shop in Oslo... Source: https://twitter.com/gamblelee/status/862307447276544000

I talked to a company that was building some kind of hardware to transcribe in real time what conversations people were having at bus stops (the round trip to the server was not fast enough).

They said the buyers used it for targeting ads, after the facial recognition stuff was considered not enough.

Re: What Restaurants Know About You Before You Walk In

#40
post #36

> Just like you’ve studied their Instagram feeds for nightly specials, hidden menu items, and the most photogenic cocktail I must be massively out of touch with modern culture, because I've never once done that.

No, what’s really going on is the franchise vs. mom & pop version of corporate espionage.

Normal people with no skin in the game, beyond what’s for lunch, don’t behave this way.

There’s a small-ish subculture of afficionados and foodies, but I’ve never met anyone that obsesses over dinner to that degree. Usually it’s a byproduct of a phase they breifly went through, when they were on a kick about something.

The rare exception being the occassional young romantic couple, obsessing over the courtship rituals of wooing their hot date. This is less about the food than the date, and again, it’s yet another small-ish subculture, since 90% of everyone is undateable. [0,1]

[0] http://www.pkmeco.com/seinfeld/wink.htm

[1] https://youtu.be/C-a64OwOYqU

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