Retail stores use Bluetooth beacons to track customers

#1

Post by notinversed » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 3:52 PM UTC

Retail stores use Bluetooth beacons to track customers
nytimes.com

Re: Retail stores use Bluetooth beacons to track customers

#2

Post by css » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 5:05 PM UTC

So... turn off Bluetooth and Wifi when you go into a store? Put subtle lines on your face with makeup to confuse their facial recognition systems? What else do we need to do now to go out in public?

Re: Retail stores use Bluetooth beacons to track customers

#3

Post by mschuster91 » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 5:10 PM UTC

css wrote: post #2

So... turn off Bluetooth and Wifi when you go into a store? Put subtle lines on your face with makeup to confuse their facial recognition systems? What else do we need to do now to go out in public?

What you need is something similar to EU-GDPR! This would be illegal on so many levels in Europe.

Re: Retail stores use Bluetooth beacons to track customers

#4

Post by asark » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 5:11 PM UTC

css wrote: post #2

So... turn off Bluetooth and Wifi when you go into a store? Put subtle lines on your face with makeup to confuse their facial recognition systems? What else do we need to do now to go out in public?

Extend laws against creepy stalking to mass, blanket versions of same, even when a corporation does it, online or IRL.

Re: Retail stores use Bluetooth beacons to track customers

#5

Post by itronitron » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 5:14 PM UTC

yet another reason to just shop online or at mom-and-pop shops

Re: Retail stores use Bluetooth beacons to track customers

#6

Post by ddavis » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 5:16 PM UTC

itronitron wrote: post #5

yet another reason to just shop online or at mom-and-pop shops

You know tracking customers is a hell of a lot easier online. Mom-and-pop shops are probably the only way to go to avoid being targeted now.

Re: Retail stores use Bluetooth beacons to track customers

#7

Post by kevin_b_er » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 5:19 PM UTC

Android has a feature called "nearby device scanning" so even if you turn off bluetooth, apps can still do BLE. I suspect stuff like this, where many many apps can spy on you on behalf of others, is why Google made BT access a Location category. But it means your weather app that uses location to tell you where you are? It is selling your location via BT beacons to 3rd parties.

Re: Retail stores use Bluetooth beacons to track customers

#8

Post by ajkjk » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 5:22 PM UTC

Nothing would make me want to buy yogurt less than an ad on my phone while I'm looking at yogurt. I would hope everyone would feel the same way, to disincentivize this.

Re: Retail stores use Bluetooth beacons to track customers

#9

Post by bdz » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 5:23 PM UTC

Apple's iBeacon location-aware shopping goes live today (2013)

https://www.theverge.com/2013/12/6/5181302/apple-store-ibeac...

Beacon Technology Arrives in 50 Target Stores (2015)

https://corporate.target.com/article/2015/08/beacon-technolo...

Re: Retail stores use Bluetooth beacons to track customers

#10

Post by dawnerd » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 5:23 PM UTC

I didn't know it was a secret? Figured it was pretty common knowledge back when iBeacons and similar were announced and when major retailers like Target even made press releases about it

https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/20/target-rolls-out-bluetooth...

Kind of funny that Apple pushing privacy basically helped create this kind of tracking to begin with.

Edit: NYT article mentions other apps selling data to retailers. I think it's time apps start asking permission to use BTLE. No reason a weather app needs that kind of access.