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Home Depot sued for 'secretly' using facial recognition at self-checkouts

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Re: Home Depot sued for 'secretly' using facial recognition at self-checkouts

#11
post #2

What's the purpose of the green square, anyways? Why not just have a regular camera feed?

Increase deterrence effect to scare away shoplifters.

Home depot goes out of the way to make its cameras visible. There is a large "camera" sign, bright light to catch your attention, a visible display to show it's not a fake, and sometimes even a motion activated chime. I assume the green square around the face is the next step in a game.

Re: Home Depot sued for 'secretly' using facial recognition at self-checkouts

#13

Don't use self-checkouts. You do all the work, slower than the cashier, and are treated like cattle. Often there is a supervisor breathing down your neck and demanding the receipt before the exit doors open. Now there is facial recognition.

> slower than the cashier...Often there is a supervisor breathing down your neck

Not sure what stores you're going to go but this is nowhere near my experience.

Re: Home Depot sued for 'secretly' using facial recognition at self-checkouts

#14

Don't use self-checkouts. You do all the work, slower than the cashier, and are treated like cattle. Often there is a supervisor breathing down your neck and demanding the receipt before the exit doors open. Now there is facial recognition.

At my Walmart there is roughly 10-15 self checkouts vs 3 cashiers where people with full carts are waiting in line. Self checkout is great if you have a few items. Also cashiers aren’t that fast considering they have to scan, bag (in some places) and then take your payment.

Some self checkouts are better than others the worst ones are the ones that don’t let you take your items off the scale after scanning and then they throw an error for you to put them back.

I’ve also never felt treated like cattle but I’d figure a checkout with a cashier is more cattle like since you are being funneled through a tight space one after the other vs an open space like self checkouts.

Re: Home Depot sued for 'secretly' using facial recognition at self-checkouts

#15

Don't use self-checkouts. You do all the work, slower than the cashier, and are treated like cattle. Often there is a supervisor breathing down your neck and demanding the receipt before the exit doors open. Now there is facial recognition.

At my Walmart there is roughly 10-15 self checkouts vs 3 cashiers where people with full carts are waiting in line. Self checkout is great if you have a few items. Also cashiers aren’t that fast considering they have to scan, bag (in some places) and then take your payment. Some self checkouts are better than others the worst ones are the ones that don’t let you take your items off the scale after scanning and then t…

If no one used the self-checkouts there would be 15 cashiers.

Re: Home Depot sued for 'secretly' using facial recognition at self-checkouts

#16

Don't use self-checkouts. You do all the work, slower than the cashier, and are treated like cattle. Often there is a supervisor breathing down your neck and demanding the receipt before the exit doors open. Now there is facial recognition.

> slower than the cashier...Often there is a supervisor breathing down your neck Not sure what stores you're going to go but this is nowhere near my experience.

You scan faster than a trained cashier? Do the self-checkouts in the US use RFID? Here in the EU I have to scan, clumsily and slowly.

Re: Home Depot sued for 'secretly' using facial recognition at self-checkouts

#17
post #9

I have developed an extreme distrust of self-checkout systems generally, in part because of the risk of this sort of thing. As a result, I simply don't use them at all anymore.

Isn't it safe to assume there's face or gait recognition all around stores though? In general, if not most places yet then inevitably soon. It's only an issue here because of an Illinois law, how many states don't have that?

Re: Home Depot sued for 'secretly' using facial recognition at self-checkouts

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my Walmart there is roughly 10-15 self checkouts vs 3 cashiers where people with full carts are waiting in line. Self checkout is great if you have a few items. Also cashiers aren’t that fast considering they have to scan, bag (in some places) and then take your payment. Some self checkouts are better than others the worst ones are the ones that don’t let you take your items off the scale after scanning and then t…

If no one used the self-checkouts there would be 15 cashiers.

There is no evidence anecdotal or otherwise to back this assertion.

Many stores near me appeared to cut cashiers before they added self-checkouts. If anything, adding self-checkouts increased the number of available options to get out of the store faster.

I'd place my bets on curbside pickup getting pushed more before cashiers get added given how popular it's become as an option.

Re: Home Depot sued for 'secretly' using facial recognition at self-checkouts

#19

Don't use self-checkouts. You do all the work, slower than the cashier, and are treated like cattle. Often there is a supervisor breathing down your neck and demanding the receipt before the exit doors open. Now there is facial recognition.

I drive to the store, pick things up off the shelf, carry them all around the store, take them to my car, drive home, bring them into the house, but moving the items twelve inches across a bar code reader is "work"? I need some low paid worker to do that trivial part so I can feel some sort of status of having been served?

Re: Home Depot sued for 'secretly' using facial recognition at self-checkouts

#20
I frequent the Home Despot and Lowe Life's, until recently, traditionally favoring the Home Despot.

The last two visits revealed the complete elimination of checkout lines and the appearance of a new cluster of self service registers with a new orientation perpendicular to the old lines. As I stood before the register, looking at the large monitor, I watched my dehumanized face beleaguered by green lines. I realized it had no other purpose but to foist an impression of my dirty face toward me, conveying my position as a filthy, groveling consumer pestering them with my petty needs. The camera could easily do its work without the hostile display, but then the customer may get away with a sense of dignity, which to them would be a form of shoplifting, or squandered neuromarketing potential.

During each visit, I make it a point to express my contempt for this to any ostensibly human employees nearby. I do so respectfully, yet their pride as high priests of home improvement and the glorious providence of private equity that blesses their sacred mission always results in perceived offense. Despite prefacing my grievance as not directed personally at them, the allure of indignance prevails and I always walk away as the bad guy who dared piss on their holy gilded ground.

Their use of cameras bothers me for different reasons, but I'm glad to fan the flames.

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