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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....
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.
And assuming that your phone does something with that signal useful to the retail store. I'm at a complete loss at what they're going at there.
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]
If they can't do their job properly to begin with--stocking the shelves with what people want--then what makes you think that tracking you will change anything? They are supposed to keep track of inventory, and if they just don't carry something, then that kind of is up to the customer to either look elsewhere or ask a manager if they can get it in. Automatic tracking will not solve anything... all it will do is violate your privacy even further. But hey, it's not like they don't have dozens or even hundreds of cameras spread all throughout their perimeter, both inside and out, spying on you. What's a bit more going to hurt, other than your own battery power in this case?
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).
Why inconvenience yourself by leaving your phone at home, when you can just avoid those store that use this tech?
If I get a text message when I walk into a store I will never set foot in that store again. There are plenty of on-line
shops that sell the same thing. I don't like busybody sales clerks hovering over my shoulder while I shop and I sure
as hell don't expect to put up with some computer doing the same thing.
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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.
And assuming the phone isn't in your pocket or purse.
OTOH, if I want directions to the shoe department at some big box store, being able to follow an arrow
on my phone is probably more useful than asking some snooty clerk. But I'll be damned if I'm installing
one app per store, so they better get their act together and find one opt-in solution.
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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.
And moreover, I assume you must install an app that use that signal. Except if there is a collusion between retail sotres and mobile vendors/operators.
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?
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
And assuming that your phone does something with that signal useful to the retail store. I'm at a complete loss at what they're going at there.
well.. museums seem like the obvious only reasonable use case for the stuff.
extra info, multimedia etc links.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Well, eventually your mom will get tired of doing all your shopping and you will have to go to a store sometime.
I suppose you could find a woman to love who will wait on you hand and foot in this regard but don't hold you breath on it. Most mature women will send you to the store so they don't have to go- even when it's for feminine hygiene products that would make you blush if you were caught buying by your friends.
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.
Small town kids are so cute.
Let me know when you save up enough money to visit the big city son, I'll take you to some stores you'll have to dial 911 just to get out of.
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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?
or leave your phone at home.. it is possible to survive without one for a few hours..
That only works as long as there are stores that don't do this.. Inevitably this will become cheap enough that every store will have it. what then?
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.
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.
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.
Outlaw the practice as an invasion of privacy or DMCA violation?
Pass opt in laws?
Demand phones that won't reveal any personal information?
Apps that sense attempt and block them, or spoof random mac addresses?
Personal jammers?
Shop online?
Picket the store?
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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.
1. good luck getting laws passed that actually protect citizen rights
2. ditto
3. ditto
4. good luck enforcing this consistently
5. might work.. better off just not carrying a phone, period.
6. that invites its own form of tracking...ala amazon's custom pricing schemes etc.
7. if you're actually successful enough to affect its bottom line, the cops get called and you get labeled a terrorist.
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
This is what Shopkick is. The users earn points called "kicks" for entering the participating stores. One app, many stores.
It's certainly not my cup of tea, but there are lots of people who voluntarily install these kinds of apps, especially when they get free stuff for doing so.
John
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.
" which transmits a unique signal that the camera in your phone can read."
Assuming everyone has a smartphone...
Don't worry, it is only aimed at those iPhone fanbois who wave their phone around to show they've got one. Anyone sensible keeps their phone in their pocket, for all sorts of reasons.
OTOH, if I want directions to the shoe department at some big box store, being able to follow an arrow on my phone is probably more useful than asking some snooty clerk.
IKEA have that sorted for you already. Their stores are laid out like a linear FPS, where you must walk past every item in the place between entering and leaving. A sales guy in the Bristol (UK) IKEA told me it was nearly a mile walk through there. So keep walking, you will find your shit eventually.
Maybe if they did a little tracking of their customers, they would stock something in the sizes or styles this customer actually wants.
Last week I was trying to buy medium size trousers (US =pants) in the Bristol Cribbs Causeway BHS store. I need a medium size. I liked one style, but all they had was exra small and extra large. In other words their statistical distribution was the inverse of the expected population distribution.
They should not need tracking to realise how dumb this is; they need to grow a brain cell instead. I guess they stock up with a level distribution of sizes and then the medium sells out first.
Anyway, how would tracking help? They might conclude I did not buy because I did not like the colour, so next time they will all be extra large and pink as well. Or are they going to photograph me to measure my anatomy?
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
How about this scenario.
You've browsed a store online. Added something to your cart but didn't buy. Now you are at the store and you get a message that the item you were looking at is available with a 15% discount.
Another: you go to a store and look at stuff then leave. Later at home you see an email with a discount code for that item at the online store.
The goal isn't to track you. The goal is to sell you something and keep you from buying it on Amazon from a grey market middle man who got ahold of a lot of merchandise from a wholesaler who dumped it for a small margin.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
How about ratings and reviews for products? DIY projects for tools at the home improvement store? Fashion tips? Behind the scenes making of info? Get Satisfaction links? Instruction manuals?
This could be useful.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
I'll go with Amazon every time, as well as their so called gray market dumpers, thank you very much.
Any retailers making enough profit to fund the type of tracking you posit are gouging too deeply anyway.
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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."
And then you buy the wrong ones, which means you're obviously playing around - they must be the kind that she uses.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
First go to the store manager and show him the text message, then tell him you're leaving and canceling your store credit card, regardless of whether you have one or not.
And I totally agree. Though I am considering keeping a Faraday bag in my car for shopping expeditions.
When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
Why does everyone love to throw out the Faraday solution for devices that have OFF switches?
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I run a shop. Some customers expect you to be over their shoulders all the time, and they actually get offended if you don't. I usually greet them and tell them to look around, and ask if they have any doubts. They look lost, get scared, and go away without even saying goodbye. A while later you hear from them saying "the service there is really bad".
You can't please everybody.
I was at this mall in Buenos Aires. The shops are arranged in a labyrinth fashion! All the floors look the same, and it's hard to find the bathrooms. Once you get out of the bathroom, it's complicated to find your way back. Because stairs going up are accessed from one side of the mall, and the ones going down are accessed through another side. Yes. It's very possible to get lost even in a small shopping mall.
This other mall has different sets of levels you access through different sets of stairs. You can't go from level 1 to level 2, you have to take the stairs from level 1 to 3, then go downstairs to level 2... complicated and tricky! Designed to get lost in there.
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.
It takes about a week for the average "hired off the street" sales staff to learn which customers need hand holding and which don't.
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Apparently they don't have Fire Marshalls in Argentina. I can't think of a single place in North America where that would be legal.
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Name one phone where off is not in fact OFF.
That would be illegal in the US.
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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.
There are emergency exits and all, but if you're looking for a store... good luck.
Also, casinos in Las Vegas are like that too. Designed to hide the exits so you can't even tell if it's day or night.
Well you won't find a clock in Vegas or many windows, but you will see exit signs everywhere.
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Again, stupid idea.
Its your phone. Why let some Robber Barron scare you away from using it?
Deprive the assholes of your patronage.
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Sorry, but you are wrong.
Said mobster story was debunked years ago. His phone had been tampered with.
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