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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

#251

Post by lotsofpulp »

JohnFen wrote: post #232
lotsofpulp wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course every decision is not correct, but the previous responses were written as if the purpose of the decisions that management made was to inconvenience or harass people, rather than simply an effort to stay in business.

If they have to harass people to stay in business, perhaps they shouldn't stay in business.

Whether or not they should stay in business will be determined by the success of a competitor offering customers something different.

I would not bet on it though.

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

#252

Post by dylan604 »

5faulker wrote: post #171
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…

Another reason why humans better think twice before taking on another convenient technology.

Give me liberty, er convenience, or give me death!

People are lazy by and large, and so if it makes things "easier" for them, they will accept without thought.

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

#253

Post by pessimizer »

derefr wrote: post #88
MichaelGroves wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When store employees are told not to physically detain any shoplifter, it hardly matters at all if they tell a serial shoplifter to leave the store. The shoplifter will walk around the confronting employee, grab whatever they like off the shelves, and walk out without paying for it. (I've seen this happen numerous times at 7-11, where the facial recognition is being run by store employees using their eyeballs/brains.…

Humans won’t detain anyone, but probably in the future there will be mechanistic countermeasures — e.g. the doors of the store just not opening for shoplifters (or at all, while shoplifters continue to be present — to prevent shoplifters from sneaking in ahead/behind a non-blacklisted customer.) Unmanned stores in the Amazon Go mould are already switching from turnstiles to airlock-style entryways; these can easily r…

People might realize that comparing these systems to a prison isn't hyperbole when the doors won't open.

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

#254

Post by silisili »

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 really understand the loyalty card thing anyways.

When I lived in the midwest, I'd just get a card from Kroger but never fill out the paperwork. I thought I was being clever, but as pointed out, they still track you by your payment method. With that being the case, why do loyalty cards still exist? For cash buyers?

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

#255

Post by kevinsundar »

HWR_14 wrote: post #123
daveslash wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started to type "That's not facial recognition" , then deleted it... The green box that you're describing is recognizing that _A_ face is in view of the camera . This is often used for properly adjusting focus, exposure, etc... I suppose you could call it "facial recognition", because that's exactly what it's doing. But it's fairly benign and passive. This technology exists in my DSLR cameras that have no network c…

Yes. But the only reason they need to identify what is a face in the camera is as a step in facial recognition. It's not like the security cameras are adjusting their focus or exposure.

Its just security theater as a theft deterrent. The idea is that if you see a screen with a green box around your face then you believe that they've got a good look at you and if you steal then they can use the images.

Walmart isn't investing money building networked cameras with the processing ability to perform facial recognition at scale in real time. It'd probably cost more money than paying employees to just watch people at the store exits.

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

#256

Post by vxNsr »

sneak wrote: post #248
vxNsr wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the point of a smart phone if you only have WiFi and no gps?

I have a separate battery powered device that does LTE backhaul and VPN and provides wifi, on which I have root and iptables/tcpdump. This way the VPN can't be bypassed on the phone, and I can inspect and filter traffic. Uber can be used by entering an address (eg one a block down from my house) with location services off. The only things I really miss out on are things that don't work at all without location, like t…

Based on the phone number in your bio you appear to be based in chicago, is there a reason you are so worried about gov tracking but put your real name and phone number in your bio?

This just seems like all incredibly inconvenient as a training exercise but I can't think of real reason someone on hn would do this only to make it very easy to ID them in other ways.

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

#257

Post by mellavora »

dabbledash wrote: post #221
rootusrootus wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's good to know. Another trick I used to use was just to tell the cashier that I forgot my card, and she'd grab a spare and swipe it. Then they started doing phone numbers, so that probably doesn't work as well now.

$local_area_code-867-5309 is almost always registered. No reason to sign up for your own card.

Jenny, is that you?

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

#258

Post by techbio »

teddyh wrote: post #201
techbio wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When "I will never" becomes "we demand".

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

#259

Post by HanShotFirst »

nonameiguess wrote: post #184
titzer wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And walk like a penguin? They have gait recognition. Revel in the dystopia that's already here. Soon it will be Gattaca. De-gene-erate!

Use the scooters they provide for mobility-impaired people. Note you shouldn't actually do this because you're taking away a scarce resource that might actually be needed by other people who can't walk, but it would defeat gait recognition. You can always bring your own scooter, but you'd have to bring a different one every time or you could be identified by the scooter. Since that would get quite expensive, you migh…

Make sure to wear gloves so they can't get your fingerprint off of the scooter handles.

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

#260

Post by ngngngng »

titzer wrote: post #121
after_care wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pay cash, wear a hat and a mask in store, decline to give them PII. It’s a pretty simple and effective solution.

And walk like a penguin? They have gait recognition. Revel in the dystopia that's already here. Soon it will be Gattaca. De-gene-erate!

Walk without rhythym, you won't attract the worm
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