Slashdot Mirror
Retail Stores Plan Elaborate Ways To Track You
Velcroman1 writes "Retailers are experimenting with a variety of new ways to track you, so that when you pick up a shirt, you might get a message about the matching shorts. Or pick up golf shoes at a sports store and you see a discount for a new set of clubs. New technologies like magnetic field detection, Bluetooth Low Energy, sonic pulses, and even transmissions from the in-store lights can tell when you enter a store, where you go, and how you shop. Just last year, tracking was only accurate within 100 feet. Starting this year, they can track within a few feet. ByteLight makes the lighting tech, which transmits a unique signal that the camera in your phone can read. The store can then track your location within about 3 feet — and it's already in use at the Museum of Science in Boston."
...leave Bluetooth turned on? Seems like a pointless way to run your battery down...
"Are you looking for something in particular, sir . . . ?"
"Yeah, you got any tinfoil clothes . . . ?"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I find it unlikely that the Salvation army or Value Village would bother with this technology, let alone actually be able to offer clothes that match.
Just sayin....
Shopping will be an event to put on facial makeup. Black lines for beneath the eyes and above the eyebrows (I think a tube of black lipstick will do nicely).
Sounds like that movie, Minority Report, when Tom Cruise went into that store with his new eyes and the hologram asked him "How are those Dockers working out for you?
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
" which transmits a unique signal that the camera in your phone can read."
Assuming everyone has a smartphone... or bring it with them. I'd basically be invisible to them.
The Orwellian aspects of such tracking are scary, but there are two sides to the coin.
On a recent shopping expedition I had to go to four stores to find a single pair of shoes in my size. I also had a tough time finding a shirt that was actually in my size. Maybe if they did a little tracking of their customers, they would stock something in the sizes or styles this customer actually wants.
Just sayin'...
Yay, more hype and wank trying to whip up the /. crowd into a frenzy.
According to TFA (yeah, I read it, suck me) all the things listed here are features of a store-wide network that interfaces with an app on your smartphone. Yes, that's right, you have to manually add an app to your phone for these establishments in order for any of this 'tracking' to work. An app whose primary function is delivering ads and coupons to you.
Seriously, aren't things already bad enough with the whole NSA thing? Is fear mongering and just plain making shit up really necessary?
[captcha: congress]
I resent the necessity to turn off my phone when I enter a store. They are taking what might be a great tool (like product comparisons via barcode and QR code reading) and turning it into a burden and annoyance instead.
If I found out a store used this, I'd go somewhere else. I do, actually, have choices.
I can imagine shopping and having a paper clip pop up on my shiny new windows phone that states, "it looks like you are trying to copy queer eye for the straight guy. Would you like some help?"
Silence is a state of mime.
Wow, you sure told us off!
LOL
Can't track me if I never go in your store... or any store... fuck 'em.
Do not want your creeping salespeople shadowing me.
Do not want your club card / loyalty program tracking me.
Really do not want your tracking app.
I have two rules when I go shopping, especially for clothes: I don't want to spend too much time on it, and I don't want to be asked if I can find "it". Yes, thank you, I'll use my eyes and I will ask you if absolutely necessary (and yes, I'm a man). Absolutely the last thing I need is the electronic equivalent of an overly eager employee store, especially since I can't tell it to bugger off.
Granted, not everybody shops like me. But image you are shopping and every 2 minutes an employee pops up next to you, holding up a cardboard with the latest sale, right in front of you. I have never seen that done in a shop, and I think with good reason... Their customers will walk out of the shop quickly.
"Fix it? It has been disintegrated, by definition it cannot be fixed!" - Gru in Despicable Me.
Have gnu, will travel.
My phone has this setting enabled. How is this little nuisance supposed to work in this case?
Interesting topic, yes, for a site that's showing at least FIVE /. user tracking processes ..
This is outrageously hypocritical ...
Don't buy anything.
Visit a "frugal living" website and "tune in and drop out".
Dave Barnes 9 breweries within walking distance of my house
Also from what I understand of SAP one of my favorite sponsors here on slashdot. Ever watch the ads for this company? The emphasis is in finding out where people are saying negative things about your product (with the goal of silencing them?)
never mind I think that sas
don't forget facial recognition. And how about those "smart cards". Remember they already track your credit card purchases.
Best to leave your phone in the car, in a tin box, and only pay cash. Oh...yeah...maybe a fake beard (unless you have a real one like any real nerd).
Or, they could, you know, go low-tech and just have a sign by the shirts that says, "Matching Shorts - 20% Off". Or even better, put the shorts on the next table.
Want to *really* upsell me? Have a pretty girl at the door hand me a coupon for an extra 10% off any purchase of $25 or more at the register. Good for two days.
The summary is incorrect. The story is about retailers tracking customers who are running the retailer's app while shopping in the store so they can suggest related items. The article even leads off with a ridiculous photo of someone holding an iPad mini and looking at a listing for the item on the shelf. When was the last time you saw someone walking around a store with an iPad in their hand?
In theory, if you're downloading the retailer's app and using it in their store on your phone, you are looking for "something extra" from the retailer. What they're talking about here is the app acting as a salesperson, noting where you are in the store and possibly what you might be looking at to suggest items you might want. It's a gimmick, though. The app may know where you are within a few feet, but it doesn't know what item you have in your hand, so it can't properly suggest products based on what you're about to buy while you're still in the store. All it can do is say "I see you're by the polo shirt table... want two of these? We'll give you a coupon for two for $20." This is no more effective than putting a dead tree sign on the table that says "polo shirts: 2 for $20." Dead trees are cheaper, and everyone can see them, resulting in more sales than limiting your promotion to the <1% of customers who are walking through your store running your app and paying attention to it.
The way to make it somewhat more effective would be to tie it into what safeway is doing, where they keep track of everything you buy with your Safeway card and the highest prices you've historically been willing to pay for those items. Then they offer you a discount based on what they know your threshold is... and they offer the person 10 feet away from you a deeper discount on the same item because they see that she only buys the item when it's below a certain price. That systematic price discrimination is the greater concern, but the article doesn't mention that because the author doesn't get it.
If this is the wave of the future I'm going to be buying a lot more of my stuff online. None of the internet retailers are tracking my purchases, are they?
Call me stupid, but isn't there a way you have a cheap tracphone with no blue tooth in the store as a 2nd phone to carry around in case you need important people to contact you??
We're no longer the consumers. We're the consumables.
In the marketplace, in the workplace, at home and in public.
McDonalds "tested" a program where they pay their employees with gift cards. The number of internet service providers who do not require access to your data and your eyeballs is shrinking.
And the concentration of the wealth of the world in the hands of a small number of people continues to increase, already well past the point of sustainability.
And people who put up the smallest resistance to the ubiquitous invasion of privacy are considered a threat. We're heading for a bad place.
You are welcome on my lawn.
You want to buy that? $12.99. Or $9.99 with app.
And they will do that with everything in the store. Prices will be higher, but if you install their shitty little app, prices will drop back to their regular price.
One store tracking me is bad. I'll just stop shopping there. It is when they start sharing the data. This is a clear case of where data privacy laws need to be very very clear and strong. You might think "Who cares if a store or two tracked someone" But the moment you buy something with a CC or debit card, then they can go back through all their data and tie your face (or cellphone ID) to your actual person. If they are sharing the data you now have a trail.
The worst would be if the cellphone company just started to sell your location data. This way someone going from car dealership to car dealership but not leaving their name or number could then suddenly start getting calls and emails. Or if you have just walked into your first dealership they could see that you hadn't been to any competitors and might be a complete sucker.
I have long been an advocate that no organization should be allow to share their customer data with any other organization. I even think this should be internal. I don't want the bank calling and trying to sell me products because they see my balance is way up. So even a bank's marketing department should be kept away from my private data.
And these retail stores wonder why we don't bother to shop in them anymore... Why the internet is beating the shit out of them on all fronts...
they can't figure it out... offer less value for higher prices... the same shit tracking every net store does.. without any sort of lower price. along with dealing with underpaid overworked employees who do not give a fuck because the company treats them like shit too... /facepalm
It's kind of heavy and won't work anyway when it's not plugged into the wall.
How about stocking all the sizes? Or maybe go crazy and even ad some sizes based on the new body types that exist in society. You know, tall or far or even tall AND fat people.
And maybe I am insane but how about stocking clothes for the season we are IN? I am male, I buy clothes when I need new ones... well... several months after I need new ones and the concept of shopping a season ahead is both alien and repulsive to me.
Or how about actually putting clothes for men in at least 1% of clothing stores? We are nearly 50% of the population.
Nah lets go high tech and try to guess what a shopper wants instead of selling him what he wants.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The submitter, Velcroman1, has submitted hundreds of stories since October 2009, all of which link to Foxnews.com, but only five comments in the last two years... just one this year so far.
Even more interesting is that stories submitted by MarkWhittington come up on Velcroman1's slashdot page as if they were Velcroman1's submissions... If you look at MarkWhittington's slashdot page, all of his submissions link to his own articles or opinion pieces on voices.yahoo.com or examiner.com. ALL of them. And also no comments. MarkWhittington apparently contributes his own content to these sites as a freelancer and submits them to slashdot to drive traffic.
On page 2 of Velcroman1's slashdot profile Nerval's Lobster (nkolakowski@slashdotmedia.com, nkolakowski@geek.net) submissions start to show up. We've already established that Nerval's Lobster is Nick Kolakowski, a slashdot employee submitting paid content as user-submitted stories...
It would be interesting to see what percentage of published slashdot stories are genuinely submitted by people who have no financial interest in the submission.
... Look Up.
http://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Sheep_Look_Up_Large_Print_16pt.html?id=FxZoKxmCoyYC&redir_esc=y
You got to love technology.
Stores cant keep their stock in any fucking sort of order, havent been able to with a small army for the last 30 some odd years
now they expect you to pick up a shirt from section A-1 and flash you to shorts in B-2, really? HAVE YOU SHOPPED FOR CLOTHING IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE?
sure its in some order, but for god's sake if a clothing store cant keep brand Y off the same rack as brand B and manage to match size numbers from tags to hangers do you seriously thing THIS is going to work, going to macy's is WORSE than hunting a flea market for video games for god's sake
...defeated by the 'Power Off' button. Technology is a wonderful thing.
I have no trouble with being tracked, and with the environment being modified towards my likes. However I'm royally sick of constantly being offered shopping opportunities. Hey guys, if you're tracking my actions and my likes, you should notice that actively trying to sell me stuff makes me go away, and stop doing it so much.
that I have a "dumb" phone. It onlt makes/receives calls and texts. No apps or GPS or camera or anything.
Seriously, this has never happened to me. Has anyone ever seen this in the real world? I can't imagine the customer reaction would be in the slightest bit positive. Someone picks up a shirt, their phone goes "Bzzt..." with a text from the store, they put the shirt down, read their text, get a creeped-out look on their face, and leave.
Then they could give me an app that told me exactly where everything in my shopping list is and I wouldn't have to spend hours wandering round the hateful place trying to find some obscure item that they have moved yet a-fuc*ing-gain. Of course they would never actually do that because they want you to wander round in the hopes you will buy some extra shit you don't need. I despise shopping, and I despise food shopping more than any other type of shopping but I'm not at home often enough and don't buy enough to make it worth online shopping. Make it easy for me to nip in, get exactly what I need and nip out again within 5 minuets and I will happily be tracked, it seems like a reasonable compromise between their need to manipulate me and my need to get away from the place as fast as possible.
can pick up.
A intransparent Bag should help.
>you pick up a shirt, you might get a message about the matching shorts.
That is what well trained sales people are for.
AdFuel
So, when you enter the store, there'll be a notice that tells the shopper to download the shop app that activates the camera, switches on bluetooth and mandates that the phone be carried in plain sight so they can deliver their dishonest sales pitches to you? What ARE these marketing droids smoking these days?
Yep, I'm a phone luddite. The phone stays OFF (not even on standby) when I don't need it. Thats what SMS and voice mail is for, to leave messages for my convenience.
Hey [beep thwunk], looks like Lord Lardass is going to pay us a visit next weekend [whirr click]. Better tell the system to put a few XXXXXXFat's on the next truck to Blobville [clunk].
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
there could have always been a sign under the shirt to promote the shorts. pickup the shirt, see the sign. it was never hard.
but there's always been technology to do all of that stuff. it used to be called a salesperson. they've gone extinct in most stores these days. but if you have a fist of cash, and you walk up to a human with a name tag, you can still get all of that old-school service at no additional cost.
From the article : "The problem is that about 40 percent or more of retail shoppers walk out without finding what they want. But in half of those cases, the product actually was in stock.”
Let me fix that: The problem is that about 40 percent or more of retail shoppers walk out without finding what they want because the store is understaffed, and the few staff on the floor are lowly-paid, inexperienced casuals.