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Many Americans not aware of being tracked with facial recognition while shopping

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Re: Many Americans not aware of being tracked with facial recognition while shopping

#341

Post by 29083011397778 »

missedthecue wrote: post #285
norov wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's not really fair. Until I start seeing Kroger going out of their way to support data provacy initiatives and consumer protections, correctly assume they have ill intent with your data.

What is the worst that could happen if Kroger learns that I use my rewards card to purchase a loaf of wonderbread and other assorted groceries every week?

Home Depot lost over 50 million debit and credit cards. Linking your first and last name with your payment method / methods and submitting it to companies not known for their security may not be in your best (long-term) interest. Doubly so considering many company account forms have address as well - meaning anyone with access is very close to having everything required to open a bank account in your name.

You're not wrong though; arguments against loyalty cards are seemingly random chains of chance, and the information is being sold by Visa as well anyways. So I'm not surprised by the free market, laissez-faire ideals on display. I don't have my eyes on perfection, just on minimizing how many times I give out potentially damaging information. And if some other people start to push back as well? Well, the more the merrier.

Re: Many Americans not aware of being tracked with facial recognition while shopping

#342

Post by throwawaytarget »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #61
karmakaze wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All that seems like they don't want you to steal at their store by giving deterrent cues. Which parts were practically inconvenient, or slow you down?

It's not about inconvenience or efficiency. It's the hostile signaling Walmart is communicating to their customers. I go to the Target just down the street, and it's the exact opposite experience.

Just last month I was in a target and they had a plain cloths security officer following a black teenager around the store (and not being very subtle about it IMO). I went up to the teenager and told him he was being followed. That seems like hostile behavior to me, but I'm sure it varies store-to-store.

Re: Many Americans not aware of being tracked with facial recognition while shopping

#343

Post by 29083011397778 »

notdang wrote: post #202
mikem170 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wifi and/or bluetooth media addresses, which are unique. I've heard that wifi tracks you to the store, bluetooth to the aisle in the store. A lot of people have all this enabled on their phones, right? Then there's the apps installed on so many phones that are built using facebook sdk's and similar that include a lot of spyware. I have the impression that stores doing this are working with data aggregator to associat…

Android and iOS are randomizing the mac addresses.

You're right. Stores would need, for example, loyalty and coupon apps installed, meaning the phone could report BT beacons and MAC addresses.

Re: Many Americans not aware of being tracked with facial recognition while shopping

#344

Post by mikem170 »

notdang wrote: post #202
mikem170 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wifi and/or bluetooth media addresses, which are unique. I've heard that wifi tracks you to the store, bluetooth to the aisle in the store. A lot of people have all this enabled on their phones, right? Then there's the apps installed on so many phones that are built using facebook sdk's and similar that include a lot of spyware. I have the impression that stores doing this are working with data aggregator to associat…

Android and iOS are randomizing the mac addresses.

I read up on this [0]. It looks like it helps to have a newer phone, and even then this feature is inconsistent across models, with some phones spewing non-random frames even when wifi is off and/or depending on how location services is configured. Although I would assume the feature will continue to be better implemented as time goes on, it doesn't look like something that is protecting most people yet.

I read a bit about bluetooth tracking [1]. Apple and Google both apparently support this kind of tracking via apps, and a lot of apps use toolkits made by advertisers that do this. Apple has been selling their iBeacon devices that can be located in stores to track people. Here's [2] something about google tracking via bluetooth even when bluetooth is turned off.

[0] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/18/wifi_tracking_failure...

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluet...

[2] https://qz.com/1169760/phone-data/

Re: Many Americans not aware of being tracked with facial recognition while shopping

#345

Post by mikem170 »

29083011397778 wrote: post #343
notdang wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android and iOS are randomizing the mac addresses.

You're right. Stores would need, for example, loyalty and coupon apps installed, meaning the phone could report BT beacons and MAC addresses.

I heard it's a lot more than the specific store app tracking people in that store. I've heard that there are tons of toolkits and sdks used to build apps that have this kind of tracking built into them, for example [0]: 79 out of 123 manually tested educational apps tested were sending data to 140 advertising companies. Another article [1] saying that Apple has done nothing to stop this, either.

I'd assume that anyone with location services enabled and/or more than a few very well chosen apps is being tracked via these methods. I assume that most popular apps include this stuff, and most people are being tracked. The more I look into it the more pervasive it seems to be.

[0] https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/education-apps-are-sending-...

[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2021/06/07/apps-continuing-to-trac...

Re: Many Americans not aware of being tracked with facial recognition while shopping

#346

Post by raxxorrax »

legerdemain wrote: post #274
hamburgerwah wrote: post #269

One other thing people may not realize. If you use your credit card at a merchant online or in person and you associate any information such as a telephone number or email with that card. Any time you use that card, online or off, to make a purchase with that merchant those transactions can be tied together regardless of whether you provide your email/phone on future transactions. Large vendors such as walmart etc no…

Then why does it take the sales person at Macy's 15 minutes to look up my order before giving up and just giving me a refund for a poorly fitting sweater I brought back?

Why improve the service when you make purchases anyway? No unnecessary optimizations. Aggregated data is valuable and it is sold to any other industry. Helps with the slim margins of retail. They also get more pictures of you.

Re: Many Americans not aware of being tracked with facial recognition while shopping

#347

Post by BayAreaEscapee »

saxonww wrote: post #291
dellcybpwr wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

okay... i'll bite: how does one use a card online without providing phone or email?

I don't know if this actually makes things better or worse - I do it in the hope I can shut down spam by removing a compromised address - but I try very hard to use a different email address for every business I purchase from. You don't always have to provide a phone number, either. Most of the time yes, but I don't think the phone number is actually required to complete a credit card transaction. There also used to…

Bank of America stopped doing virtual credit card numbers a few years ago.

I think Citibank allows you to do it, but I have no personal experience or knowledge.

I have a card from Capital One that allows virtual credit card numbers.

Privacy.com is a service specifically for this issue. It allows you to generate lots of virtual cards and even use fake names so you can't be tracked so easily.

Re: Many Americans not aware of being tracked with facial recognition while shopping

#348

Post by Panqueca_do_mar »

nonfamous wrote: post #179
oramit wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should I care to keep what I buy at the grocery store private? I'm not trying to be flippant with this question. I'm just honestly perplexed why this is an important dateset to keep private. Also, why would I want to avoid discounts? Grocery stores are one of the few places that gives me money for handing them my data. Isn't this good behavior!?

What you buy at a grocery store can reveal a lot about you: - Personal care products: gender - Medications: age/health of you and family members - Magazines/media: political affiliation, social class The list goes on. [Edit: formatting]

- The amount of junk food that I buy: That I'm fat

Re: Many Americans not aware of being tracked with facial recognition while shopping

#349

Post by npteljes »

swiley wrote: post #159
teawrecks wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And maintain/pay for an email server.

You already have to have a computer anyway.

Would it work if the computer I have is not always turned on? I think the other MTAs would give up delivery after a few retries, so you need at least one always-on computer, so a server. And then we're not really in the "free" territory anymore, it's much more worth it to just pay professionals for hosting.

Re: Many Americans not aware of being tracked with facial recognition while shopping

#350

Post by dTal »

unstatedAnswers wrote: post #275
legerdemain wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why does it take the sales person at Macy's 15 minutes to look up my order before giving up and just giving me a refund for a poorly fitting sweater I brought back?

Customer support is a cost center, so it gets less funding than sales/marketing-oriented projects (route-optimizing here likely has the intention of boosting sales, not necessarily reducing customer shopping time)

I don't understand "cost center". Everything is a cost center except the part where you physically acquire the money. Surely both marketing and customer service are invested money that hopefully increases your customer base down the line? What's the difference?

I suspect the real reason that the panopticon is kept separate from the customer is to avoid creeping people out.

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