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Shoplifters could soon be chased down by drones

technologyreview.com

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Re: Shoplifters could soon be chased down by drones

#11

Post by gdulli »

tdeck wrote: post #4

As someone who has never shoplifted in my life, this makes me deeply uncomfortable. If it's acceptable for a business to use drones to tail a (suspected) shoplifter, what stops a business from using them to tail a regular customer to collect marketing data? What if I am curious where someone I work with lives, is it OK to use a drone to follow them home? I would argue that it's obviously not OK but it seems like ther…

> What stops a business from using them to tail a regular customer to collect marketing data?

I wonder if anyone's considered starting a business of leasing space on urban roofs and building facades, installing cameras, and then selling the footage of all the foot traffic. Sounds a lot easier than drones.

Re: Shoplifters could soon be chased down by drones

#12

Post by Onawa »

gdulli wrote: post #11
tdeck wrote: post #4

As someone who has never shoplifted in my life, this makes me deeply uncomfortable. If it's acceptable for a business to use drones to tail a (suspected) shoplifter, what stops a business from using them to tail a regular customer to collect marketing data? What if I am curious where someone I work with lives, is it OK to use a drone to follow them home? I would argue that it's obviously not OK but it seems like ther…

> What stops a business from using them to tail a regular customer to collect marketing data? I wonder if anyone's considered starting a business of leasing space on urban roofs and building facades, installing cameras, and then selling the footage of all the foot traffic. Sounds a lot easier than drones.

So you mean Flock? Except even better, people pay them to install the cameras.

Re: Shoplifters could soon be chased down by drones

#13

Post by burnt-resistor »

Obvious problem: Drones typically don't have long-lasting batteries.

And, it seems relatively easy to travel out of range longer and/or faster than it can fly or go somewhere flying drones can't follow like into a closed structure or underground area.

Seems like a gimmick to sell to corporate customers.

Re: Shoplifters could soon be chased down by drones

#14

Post by Bender »

tdeck wrote: post #9
potato3732842 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police somewhere are probably already using them to spray pepper spray. I bet if you shoot their drone it's "attempted murder of an officer" or whatever just like it is for the dogs.

I googled "Pepper Spray Drones" and this was the first result, peak USA: https://dronelife.com/2025/04/01/pepper-spray-drones-in-scho...

Nice. That could have mitigated some of the recent roof shooters and could have obtained higher resolution footage of the roof shooters and decoys at UVU in Utah.

Re: Shoplifters could soon be chased down by drones

#15

Post by garciasn »

tdeck wrote: post #4

As someone who has never shoplifted in my life, this makes me deeply uncomfortable. If it's acceptable for a business to use drones to tail a (suspected) shoplifter, what stops a business from using them to tail a regular customer to collect marketing data? What if I am curious where someone I work with lives, is it OK to use a drone to follow them home? I would argue that it's obviously not OK but it seems like ther…

Since the time I was 15 or 16, I have been regularly targeted by loss prevention as a potential threat. To this day, 30y later, it's become a running joke w/my kids about when we'll be 'bothered', stopped, or outright harassed by employees (plain clothed or uniformed) for doing nothing other than shopping in a way that is somehow different than they expect.

I have never shoplifted, but yet, here we are. While it's a mild annoyance to be stopped and asked if I need any help by two retail employees alongside a uniformed LPP (I refuse to call them officers) or asked to produce a receipt--even if we're just browsing to kill time and I didn't buy anything, now I may be pursued by a fucking drone because some algorithm or human operator has decided I'm somehow doing something they don't like?

I am genuinely terrified.

Re: Shoplifters could soon be chased down by drones

#16

Post by [deleted] »

tdeck wrote: post #4

As someone who has never shoplifted in my life, this makes me deeply uncomfortable. If it's acceptable for a business to use drones to tail a (suspected) shoplifter, what stops a business from using them to tail a regular customer to collect marketing data? What if I am curious where someone I work with lives, is it OK to use a drone to follow them home? I would argue that it's obviously not OK but it seems like ther…

[deleted]

Re: Shoplifters could soon be chased down by drones

#20

Post by brendoelfrendo »

Onawa wrote: post #12
gdulli wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What stops a business from using them to tail a regular customer to collect marketing data? I wonder if anyone's considered starting a business of leasing space on urban roofs and building facades, installing cameras, and then selling the footage of all the foot traffic. Sounds a lot easier than drones.

So you mean Flock? Except even better, people pay them to install the cameras.

Flock is the company behind the drones in this article, so we've come full circle.
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