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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

#201

Post by teddyh »

techbio wrote: post #196
acdha wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The availability of that option depends on your appearance: affluent middle-aged white people can usually do it but if you’re a teenager or match whatever demographic is poor in the area, you have to weigh that versus escalation possibly including armed police response.

Which escalations the store would have to weigh against a loss of business they should expect after racially targeting innocent (if so) customers. Know your rights and exercise them, keep your chin up and communicate. Fear is a trigger of suspicion.

When has “I’ll never shop here again!” ever been a useful threat? Shops care about people in aggregate, not you in particular. And anyone they decide to bother is someone they already have decided they don’t care about the opinion of.

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

#202

Post by notdang »

mikem170 wrote: post #84
seriousquestion wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that work? How do they get the ID? And is it location accurate enough that it would not get confused with another phone a few feet away?

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.

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

#203

Post by blagie »

mikecoles wrote: post #152
emodendroket wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that the point? No way out really.

Shop local, independent stores. Vote with your wallet.

How do I know local, independent stores aren't using face recognition?

I can get a home security face recognition camera for $30. This is no longer elite technology.

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

#204

Post by beervirus »

asciimov wrote: post #168
beervirus wrote: post #14

It’s horrible. But what is there to do about it?

Don't worry about it if you use credit cards, they already know a ton about you.

Sad but true. I’m guessing Apple Pay is slightly better, but I haven’t actually looked into it.

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

#205

Post by mustacheemperor »

mbg721 wrote: post #55

Kroger has felt especially intrusive for a couple of decades; it's almost as though they're going out of their way to be manipulative and creepy, right from the store layout where Pepsi is $87.00 at your feet and Coke is $0.75 at eye level, down to the personalized coupons they send you in the mail. But the big stores that don't have loyalty cards are still slurping up data; they just get it from your credit card and…

>I don’t know what the answer is

I know this isn’t a privilege available to everyone, but I just shop at a locally owned city grocery that isn’t part of a national conglomerate. I don’t think Good Life Grocery and Rainbow are scanning my face…or maybe I’m one of the oblivious shoppers from the article?

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

#206

Post by Spivak »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #156
jimmaswell wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My answer is to not worry about it and be glad that these practices lower prices.

They raise prices, then give you a “discount.”

I feel like this misunderstands sales and discounting systems. Because it's a snappy line which is technically true but the long answer is way weirder.

I'm just gonna use Kroger as an example because they use "club pricing", rotating club pricing, actual sales, "manager specials", and closeout sales.

- Everything by default is priced at MSRP, that's the price on the white price tags or the yellow price tags that don't have a corresponding white price.

- Then they use club pricing which is the price on the "yellow" tags that aren't formatted like number/$dollars like 3/$5 or 2/$4. This is the price you would compare to Walmart.

- Then there is rolling club pricing which is like 2/$5 but always unit priced to your benefit. So they will mark 2/$4 but the unit price is $2.

These aren't actually sales in any meaningful sense. But the next ones are.

- The actual sales require a minimum unit purchase. You probably see these when buying soda or vitamins. If you compare prices to other stores this is only time you'll see the unit price actually smaller than other stores. The "buy n get $n" deals are also in this category but are way more gameified.

- Then there are "manager specials" i.e. "woohoo!" deals which are priced with stickers and also actually discounts.

- Finally there are closeout deals which are white tags usually steeply discounted and don't require a card to get.

I really hate that all this garbage works. I really appreciate stores that just post a price.

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

#207

Post by JohnFen »

asciimov wrote: post #164

The October before covid me and Mrs. Asciimov went on a cruse with Royal Caribbean. We got dropped off at the port, put our luggage in the loading area, and proceeded to walk inside, all without talking to anyone. Not 30 seconds after walking into the Port Building, a RCL rep walked up and greeted me and the mrs by first name. Said please walk this way, I have you all checked in, you just need to go through the retur…

That would be the last time I went on an RCL cruise.

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

#208

Post by scrps »

This may be a stupid idea and it is outside my expertise (IANAL): Would legally classifying identity information as intellectual property help? I don't know the case law around identity as private property but I would imagine requiring someone to enter into a legally binding contract just to enter a store would kill efforts like these pretty fast.

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

#209

Post by mbg721 »

mustacheemperor wrote: post #205
mbg721 wrote: post #55

Kroger has felt especially intrusive for a couple of decades; it's almost as though they're going out of their way to be manipulative and creepy, right from the store layout where Pepsi is $87.00 at your feet and Coke is $0.75 at eye level, down to the personalized coupons they send you in the mail. But the big stores that don't have loyalty cards are still slurping up data; they just get it from your credit card and…

>I don’t know what the answer is I know this isn’t a privilege available to everyone, but I just shop at a locally owned city grocery that isn’t part of a national conglomerate. I don’t think Good Life Grocery and Rainbow are scanning my face…or maybe I’m one of the oblivious shoppers from the article?

Well, I'm in Cincinnati, roughly the 25th largest metro area in the US. When I grew up, there were IGAs, but I think they're all gone now. We have various farmers' markets, and a couple of one-off independent grocers, and then there's Jungle Jim's, which is sort of a combination grocery-store/amusement-park. I don't know if they're scanning my face or not, but if they are, it's so they know what kind of hot-sauce wall to build.
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