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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

#321

Post by bee_rider »

bmn__ wrote: post #120
neilv wrote: post #76

I'm pretty sick of misguided/enthusiastic Loss Prevention people, and these digital systems amplify their hijinks. The most conspicuous one recently was at one upscale grocery chain within the last year. There was what I took to be a dedicated LP person who seemed to be lurking behind the self-checkouts, to watch me specifically, and I stood there until he went away. Then, as I was checking out, this employee came up…

[flagged]

Anybody reading down from here, note that you are entering the zone of mostly evidence free ideological-team-signaling posting. Let’s all get out our jerseys and tell everybody how society actually works.

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

#322

Post by RugnirViking »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #293
UncleMeat wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is amazing to me that we have have failed so completely to report on the miraculous drop in crime rates over the past 30 years. People consistently report that crime is up, even when presented with contradictory evidence. A major part of the problem, in my estimation, is that a lot of people don't actually perceive crime as crime but instead perceive divergence from their expected social hierarchies as crime. This…

That's a good point. Perhaps people "feel" unsafe, not that, statistically, they in fact are.

and thats kinda what my point is. Even outside of the news cycle, there is so much anti thievery signs etc where their main function, in my estimation, is causing people to feel that crime is all around them, regardless of their effects on actual crime.

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

#323

Post by bevhill »

speedylight wrote: post #278
ProllyInfamous wrote: post #40

Home Depot's self-checkouts are using this facial ID to build/maintain their shoplifting database — this tracks thefts by the same person across multiple visits, and is used over time to build up a case against errant self-checkout-ers (i.e. to get them above a theft threshhold, at which point prosecution becomes easier). There is also CCTV AI (whether artificial intelligence, or actually indians) which can intervene…

Not just easier, they’re probably waiting until the cumulative value leads to felony theft charges.

This is another example of the poor being punished harder. A desperate mother who steals repeatedly will reach felony levels and spend years in prison or face deportation, but a rich teen who steals for fun will stay below felony and get away Scott free.

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

#324

Post by no_wizard »

neilv wrote: post #76

I'm pretty sick of misguided/enthusiastic Loss Prevention people, and these digital systems amplify their hijinks. The most conspicuous one recently was at one upscale grocery chain within the last year. There was what I took to be a dedicated LP person who seemed to be lurking behind the self-checkouts, to watch me specifically, and I stood there until he went away. Then, as I was checking out, this employee came up…

Wage theft is the largest form of theft in retail, out numbering shoplifting by a good margin.

Perhaps loss prevention should look at management for the stolen money

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

#325

Post by wizzwizz4 »

bevhill wrote: post #317
cooper_ganglia wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>an N95 is a good idea in a pharmacy on a college campus, where the Covid factories that are college students will go Did I just step into a time portal to 2022? Have you... been in a coma for the past several years? haha

Peak COVID never ended. It's more important now than ever to stay vaccinated, maintain social distance, and mask up.

COVID is down from its peak, as I understand. It's just very much not gone, and by no means less nasty. We had the opportunity to wipe it out with a short, synchronised global lockdown, and we squandered it, and now it's like plague.

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

#326

Post by bevhill »

Ekaros wrote: post #81
cortesoft wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have ANY evidence that sending someone to jail for a few months to a few years sets people on a straight path? I am pretty sure the evidence shows the opposite.

So why we are even using it anymore? Why not then close down all the prisons? If there is no deterrent effect or rehabilitation effect. Wouldn't it be greater savings just to close it all down and let everyone out?

People don't need "rehabilitation", they need help. Nobody would need to shoplift if they could afford what they need. Prices should always be indexed to the customer's income. That's it - make it so everyone can afford things, and crime ends overnight. It works for healthcare. People with insurance pay for those without. Why not for groceries and TVs?

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

#327

Post by Izkata »

jolmg wrote: post #235
Frost1x wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, where’s the theft of my time and labor for now performing part of your business transaction process you should be performing by hiring staff to check me out. You don’t want to pay people to do that and put yourself in a higher theft situation, then you haggle the customer even more by treating them like a criminal. I had one of these happen at a self checkout the other day where the system did object tracking an…

> Yea, where’s the theft of my time and labor for now performing part of your business transaction process you should be performing by hiring staff to check me out. I've seen this sentiment in recent years, but with respect to time, self-checkout was always faster than human cashiers. You didn't need to wait while the cashiers did procedures like counting the money in the drawer and waiting for a supervisor to sign-o…

Also, self-checkout itself is faster here anyway. We don't have baggers, so in the cashier lanes you have to unload onto the conveyor and put your items into the bags yourself, with some awkward maneuvering since the register is between the conveyor and the bagging area. In self-checkout unloading and bagging is combined into one action: Lift item from cart, pass over scanner on the way to the bags, place in bag, and pay at the end without even having to move. No real additional work on the customer's part.

Also like the other response, I hadn't heard of explicit limits either, as long as everything fits on the bagging scale.

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

#328

Post by vorgol »

pilingual wrote: post #157

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,…

It's very tempting to assume what people will or are doing, and it's so, so easy to get it so wrong.

Picture this. Guy comes home late at night. Outdoor light is on. He goes in and presses he light switch. No lights come on but the fuse blows and now the outdoor light is gone.

What does he do?

The answer is that you have no idea based on only that information. It's tempting to think he'll do what my friends and I would do: find the fusebox and investigate.

But the thing is, his crazy ex's crazy boyfriend threatened yesterday to kill him. This guy is bolting, not looking for the fusebox.

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

#329

Post by bevhill »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #91
danpalmer wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> i.e. to get them above a theft threshhold, at which point prosecution becomes easier This feels like it should be illegal. Holding back on reporting or prosecuting until you think you're more likely to get a conviction or a bigger conviction, feels close to entrapment. To do otherwise is just unnecessarily vindictive, showing that it's the punishment that matters more than the prevention.

Is it really any different than the thief who steals things just under the felony limit...but does it every day? In Texas the felony limit is $2,500. Is stealing $1000 on Monday, $1000 on Tuesday, and $1000 on Wednesday really so much better than stealing $3,000 on Monday?

The delay gives you time to arrange a refund from Visa/Mastercard or to make an insurance claim, if you're a business. You don't really have to lose anything from theft. It's just a business expense for your insurance or card issuer.

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

#330

Post by fumeux_fume »

culturestate wrote: post #136
stephen_g wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed at supermarkets here that of the dozens of times those 'you haven't scanned something' warnings have come up, only one time the item hadn't actually scanned when I thought it had. Every other time has been a false positive for me. They're pretty dodgy, the workers always seem pretty frustrated with it as they go around clearing them for people (sometimes a handful of people waiting, falsely accused by th…

All of the places around here that had first-gen units with a scale on the packing side (to make sure you actually scanned eg a banana and not a two pound block of cheese, yet were constantly wrong) have replaced them with newer versions that don't have scales or any other way that I can see to validate that what you scanned is what you put into your bag. I'm not sure where I would find the data to back this up, but…

The horrible scale system of self-checkouts brought my anxiety to a fever pitch. Any slight adjustment to the bag or moving anything around would literally set off an alarm for "assistance." Still gives me low-key ptsd even though I know they don't use them anymore.
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