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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

#161

There's a lot of news recently abouts companies just simply hiding things. Dishonesty seems to be the new normal everywhere. There is no god.

Corporation-on-consumer fraud has effectively always been legal in the US.

When a corporation lies for profit and gets caught, it is merely a "mistake" and no criminal charges are filed.

Individuals aren't afforded the same privilege.

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

#162

I make it a point not to use self-checkout systems because I want to support human interaction even if basic, and contribute to jobs for humans. And cash (most self-checkouts here are card-only). I understand it’s a losing battle on all fronts.

Not sure if this is the same for the USA, but worker shortage is the main reason why self-checkout became popular here in Europe at least. Aging population, very low birthrate and higher educated people all contributed to this problem (although not for all countries in the EU).

In the USA, the self checkout line is easily 5x faster than the human line. Cities are growing, but the size or number of grocery stores is not.

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

#164
post #97

I make it a point not to use self-checkout systems because I want to support human interaction even if basic, and contribute to jobs for humans. And cash (most self-checkouts here are card-only). I understand it’s a losing battle on all fronts.

Same. And indeed a losing battle. Society is being dehumanized, and humans embrace this trend. Maybe it is because it is a means to face away of all the big challenges humanity faces. Being social in complex society requires skill and effort, causes stress. Facing life challenges, and the doom and gloom. The easy way is to flee that, to extract oneself, and technology is bliss here.

> Society is being dehumanized, and humans embrace this trend.

Well... that's because capitalism incentivizes us to do it wrong. Instead of the dreams of the early sci-fi writers getting real - aka, robots and automation do the majority of the work, leaving humans time to socialize - we have it even worse nowadays, with even with the work force of women added to the labor pool, there still are constant political pushes to expand working hours or to even make it legal to hire children again.

If the profits from productivity gains over the last decades would have been distributed to the workers, either in terms of purchasing power or in free time, we wouldn't be in this entire mess.

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

#165
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The shoplifters don’t care. Look at any hardware section at homedepot. Half the bags are ripped open. Try and find some stock they say is there online. Its not it already got stolen. The registers is not where they need to be combatting theft. It is everywhere else in that store.

As someone living in Japan, the sheer number of instances of theft in your description shocks me. Is this that common there?

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

#166
post #140
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

AFAIK improving on poverty is a more effective approach.

It's not mutually exclusive. Just because poverty exists you shouldn't legalize theft, as that hurts both business and the community as a whole, since nobody wants to run a business and create jobs where there's a lot of crime so then the entire community spirals down into a shithole.

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

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not "do it three times". "Get fined for it three times." That's the key difference; there's feedback from the system that's supposed to act as a corrective. What's being discussed here would be taking away someone's license sight unseen, with no previous lesser punishment having been administered.

In the U.K. you get points on a license for being caught speeding (and other offence). Typically 3. Knock 12 points up over 3 years and you lose your license. The problem is the time it takes from being caught to getting the letter can be a couple of weeks. You could literally go from 0 points to license loss for driving 10 miles on an empty road with changeable speed limits and have no idea until a week or two later…

*loicense

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

#168
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some time ago I had a mild case of cerebral palsy, enough to slightly distort my facial features. And sure enough that made the AI flag me frequently for 'grocery frisking' by suspicious personnel in the supermarket where I am regular customer for years. That means nothing anymore. The supermarket is a factory, and you are a shopping trolley, a wallet, and a potential thief.

I'm assuming you mean Bells Palsy, not Cerebral Palsy. I haven't heard of a short-term Cerebral Palsy, but then again I'm not an expert.

You are correct, it was Bells Palsy, thanks for correcting me.

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

#169
post #140
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

AFAIK improving on poverty is a more effective approach.

Not only poor people shoplift. Guessing the majority of shoplifting is done by people not living in proverty.

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

#170

Don't people dodge these cameras? When I used a credit card at home depot self checkout I was asked if I wanted to have the receipt sent to a specific email address I entered previously online. Creepy. So I started using cash only. Last year I went to get some low voltage wire. I walked for several aisles in both directions to find someone to open the cage. Not a soul. So I reached behind the cage and pulled it out,…

>When I went to my car (parked far away of course) there was a police car hanging out right next to it. Nothing further happened, but all too coincidental.

I think you're being paranoid.

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