Many Americans not aware of being tracked with facial recognition while shopping • Hacker News Board

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

#351

Post by dingaling » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 8:32 AM UTC

vineyardmike wrote: post #322

oramit wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to rag on you in particular. The answers I get around privacy problems are always conjecture. "Perhaps" the insurance company will do x, "Maybe" they will do y. It's always some scary threat that could happen in the future. The problem is though that the powers that be (government/corporate) already have more private information than ever before and yet: nothing has happened. At what point do these warni…

Insurance companies DO buy data like this. It is not perhaps. They buy data about you that they do not use to your advantage. They have no interest in lowering your premiums and every interest in raising them. One other example is the 2016 election and cambridge analytica. Not going to make a political case on the politicians, but the political parties (and foreign govs with interest in the outcome) bought data on el…

> They have no interest in lowering your premiums and every interest in raising them.

Which is wholly understandable because to price the risk accurately they need to see the full risk profile.

If insurers couldn't price accurately then insurance as a business couldn't exist.

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

#352

Post by hamburgerwah » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 9:03 AM UTC

dellcybpwr wrote: post #278

hamburgerwah wrote: post #269

One other thing people may not realize. If you use your credit card at a merchant online or in person and you associate any information such as a telephone number or email with that card. Any time you use that card, online or off, to make a purchase with that merchant those transactions can be tied together regardless of whether you provide your email/phone on future transactions. Large vendors such as walmart etc no…

okay... i'll bite: how does one use a card online without providing phone or email?

Obviously you can't but the point people don't realize is that if you use that same card in store the merchant can link it back to online purchases you made and all your information which they can then package and sell to data brokers.

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

#353

Post by Vinnl » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 9:18 AM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #132

Vinnl wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if they don't actually lower prices, but use your purchase history to learn what gets you to spend more money?

In Canada, 'price discrimination' is a criminal offence. Cuz you know, if something is anti-consumer and impacts rich people, strong laws will be written against it. But there's many ways around it.

It needn't even be price discrimination; for example, they can also just specifically highlight discounts for you for products that you usually combine with expensive/high-margin products that you otherwise wouldn't buy.

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

#354

Post by teddyh » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 9:50 AM UTC

techbio wrote: post #258

teddyh wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

> we demand

Can you name a few, or even one, consumer-level boycott in, say, the last 50 years, which actually accomplished its goal? Accomplished by the actual boycott alone, I mean.

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

#355

Post by half-kh-hacker » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 9:50 AM UTC

sodality2 wrote: post #126

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!

Gravel in the shoes, like Cory Doctorow foretold...

There's a lot of wisdom in those books, I really like 'em.

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

#356

Post by blagie » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 11:14 AM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #44

dopylitty wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure there’s a way out. Elect representatives who will vote to outlaw the use of facial recognition and other tracking technologies.

There are many things I wish they would do and this isn't at the top of the list for me.

That's kind of why we have broken laws.

People vote for what's on the top of their list, which is always one side of the abortion debate, the gun debate, the social justice/identity politics debate, or otherwise.

The stuff further down, in aggregate, matters a lot more, and is universally corrupt.

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

#357

Post by bluedino » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 1:36 PM UTC

shadilay wrote: post #339

bluedino wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$12,000 a month? That's almost nothing for a store like Walmart.

Nothing only if the other stores subsidize that particular store. In reality they will just close unprofitable stores.

I don't mean it's nothing like they should simply absorb the costs, nothing as in a very low number for a Walmart.

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

#358

Post by webinvest » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 1:49 PM UTC

legerdemain wrote: post #274

hamburgerwah wrote: post #269

One other thing people may not realize. If you use your credit card at a merchant online or in person and you associate any information such as a telephone number or email with that card. Any time you use that card, online or off, to make a purchase with that merchant those transactions can be tied together regardless of whether you provide your email/phone on future transactions. Large vendors such as walmart etc no…

Then why does it take the sales person at Macy's 15 minutes to look up my order before giving up and just giving me a refund for a poorly fitting sweater I brought back?

Because Macy’s may be going out of business like JC Penny’s and Dillards.

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

#359

Post by emodendroket » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 2:07 PM UTC

blagie wrote: post #356

emodendroket wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many things I wish they would do and this isn't at the top of the list for me.

That's kind of why we have broken laws. People vote for what's on the top of their list, which is always one side of the abortion debate, the gun debate, the social justice/identity politics debate, or otherwise. The stuff further down, in aggregate, matters a lot more, and is universally corrupt.

Not sure those are the top ones either but let's grant the point. What do you think voters should be doing instead?

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

#360

Post by techbio » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 3:53 PM UTC

teddyh wrote: post #354

techbio wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> we demand Can you name a few, or even one, consumer-level boycott in, say, the last 50 years, which actually accomplished its goal? Accomplished by the actual boycott alone, I mean.

Add up all the businesses that have failed and you'll find plenty that disrespected some of their customers.

Walmart is a much higher bar geopolitically, but bet they have to jump too when word gets out of malfeasance. But it is a prisoner's dilemma when they are the main one-stop value shop.