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Walmart's Newly Patented Technology For Eavesdropping On Workers Presents Privacy Concerns (buzzfeed.com)
Walmart has patented an audio surveillance system which can be used to listen to conversations between employees and customers at checkout. From a report: The "listening to the frontend" technology, as its called, is one of many futuristic ideas Walmart has sought to patent in recent years as it competes with Amazon for domination of the retail industry. While there's no guarantee that Walmart will ever build this technology, the patent shows the company is thinking about using tech not just to facilitate deliveries or make its warehouses more efficient, but also to manage its workforce, which is the largest in the United States. Walmart declined to comment on whether it plans to use audio sensors to measure the productivity of its staff in the near future, but said in a statement, "We're always thinking about new concepts and ways that will help us further enhance how we serve customers, but we don't have any further details to share on these patents at this time."
I hope they implement this system and capture my voice saying, "Alice Walton can go fuck herself!"
Yeah sure let's introduce more and more 'technologies' that produce ever-increasingly chilling effects on the daily lives of people, make them feel like convicts in prison or animals in a zoo, that'll really motivate them to be more productive and really get their creative juices flowing. After all look at how well that worked in Auschwitz! Great job Walmart, you're a shining example of the direction the United States is going, what an inspiration!
I can think of a lot of valid and non-privacy invading uses for simply monitoring audio from a warehouse. It might help you understand where there was dead time where workers were just bored, and improve on that somehow (even if it was providing workers something to help fight boredom).
Sure it could also go the other way into some really invasive and annoying use where it found some worker was "too sarcastic" or whatever. But I don't think it serves anyone well to automatically dismiss every new technical idea that comes to mind just because it could be used for ill, because ANY tool can be used for ill if you put your mind to it. Instead help promote positive and reasonable uses of technology and call out if it starts to stray.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
... nothing to see.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Just 20 years ago, it was inconceivable that a free person's location, movement, and associations with other free people would be almost universally tracked and recorded.
Today, it is inconceivable that every word that comes out of a free person's mouth would be recorded, and that a free person would be subject to universal facial recognition and other tools of mass surviellance. But that day is very quickly approaching.
20 years from now, it will seem inconceivable that a free person's thoughts would be recorded, universally, everywhere that person goes. That is the logical end game of mass surveillance -- mind reading. As history shows, it will get here sooner than we think.
Ethics aside, you would think they would fix actual horrible inefficiencies first. For example, the pickers for their online orders are only shown 1 item at a time, and the items are *randomly* ordered, so even though the customer orders 2 different pairs of socks that are next to each other, the employees aren't shown (and can't see even if they tried to) this info to be able to speed up their job and end up doing tons of extra walking.
If you paid your Employees correctly and took care of them you wouldn't need to worry about low morale and productivity. Costco doesn't have this problem... Either does Winco...
We've all heard that prerecorded notice on support calls: "This call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurances purposes."
Same thing but without the phones.
We should track the # of references to Manna on /. over time as an indicator of when our dystopian future will be upon us.
BlameBillCosby.com
Wow! I am not even mad. I am actually impressed! That was amazing!
Wife: Honey what do we want to eat from the deli counter?
Greybeard husband: Oh i dont know, maybe the square root of a zero inch submarine sandwich with extra semicolon quote semicolon and a side of drop table customers, payroll, sales.
[incoherent screaming from the office]
Greybeard husband: ah! looks like someone already ordered one!
Good people go to bed earlier.
using a microphone and storage device to record audio that can be listened to later for various purposes. What an innovative idea, i can't believe no one has done this before it should certainly be granted a patent.
Sounds like they're rolling out the next feature of Manna. Seriously though, there's not much to worry about. If Walmart is going to be recording conversations at the checkout lines, that's only 2-3 employees even when the store is slammed, right?
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
That I don't exactly have to talk at Walmart. It's kinda hard to get anything done on a phone call if you don't want to talk.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Maybe they could install a speaker and hire someone able to translate the gibberish?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked! Now who would have thought that?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Spend a little "too much" time in the bathroom?
Go too often? (Who cares if you're on water pills for your hypertension!)
Gee, he's not moving fast enough!
He's not saying our scripted greetings or addressing customers to our (hokey idiotic) script!
Ha! He's not cheering hard enough during the opening meeting cheer session!! (Really, Walmart employees have to do this ridiculous cheer because some moron somewhere is under the delusion that it makes better workers with no evidence to back it up. Typical corporate horseshit.)
I mean I could on .... and there's things that I haven't even thought of.
It's just another way of demeaning people.
How hard is it to monitor employee conversations for the keywords "union", "organize", "benefits" and "raise" ?!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
This technology is blatantly illegal in any state that requires two party consent for recorded conversations. The moment you step into the store, you've gone from a "public place" with no expectation of privacy to "private property open to the public" where there DOES exist an expectation of privacy, especially in a close conversation.
If Walmart is currently using this technology, it certainly deserves criminal review.
RESIST!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I'm a porn addict, have been for the past 20 years, and it is the only reason I'm a software engineer today. Started with automating the clean-up of my "sessions" back in the day, and it continued over the past few years with either automated response bots on classifieds website, scrapping tools on hookup website, and lately, torrent federation. Porn and sex have been the driver of so much code !
Checker: Your total is 37.46, sir.
Customer: Thanks...Oh... and Dear Wal-Mart management, they shoot spies, don't they?
I don't subscribe to RMS's GNUtopian vision.
audio sensors can be used to find union talk and that is a big NO NO.
Some states have two party consent required for recording, so I can't see this being used in those states. I doubt WalMart will want to have their cashiers remind you every time you visit that everything you say is recorded.
This is in a warehouse
Just when I think the shittiest company can't get any shitier they up and do something like this... *slow clap* Bravo...
Whenever a player quits EVE to go play WoW, the Average IQ of both games increase.
Yeah. At a convenience store. Cameras everywhere, with mikes.
The register area was most heavily monitored, sometimes in realtime.
Audio was used to judge one's performance.
I hated it. Even with the store closed and me mopping the floor it felt like some kind of mythical omniscient sky-dwelling entity was watching me.
And in my current IT job? Cameras in the fucking office..with mikes. I've seen it used against employees.
Yes, I'm looking. Been looking for a while. I can't stand this surveillance shit, I don't care *what* line of work it is.
Walmart can go fuck itself.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
As if we aren't building our little personal Panopticons as fast as we can, then we get this:
Check your premises.
minimizing contact with customers is not a winning strategy
I guess that's why online shopping and delivery have been such a flop.
I expect they're going to follow this up with a "pre-crime" (ala "Minority Report") initiative. They'll monitor people's actions, manners, and postures in the store and learn to anticipate when somebody intends to steal. Then they'll arrest them before the crime is committed and build a case based on "the intention to steal."
An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
You already walked into a store loaded with fucking security cameras, which has notice of said camera system posted in a conspicuous location.
You already gave up your explicit right to privacy by entering that facility.
Gotta wonder what was patent-worthy, though, because my old porno shop definitely had a microphone and camera pointed right at the counter, so the management could listen in mostly to the customer asking if we carried a specific video or product.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
minimizing contact with customers is not a winning strategy
You need to know what business you are in. Nordstroms emphasizes the "relationship" between customers and sales associates. Walmart emphasizes low prices. Walmart's revenues are 35 times higher. Walmart's profits are 73 times higher.
I prefer Walmart because I can shop with no one bothering me, and they have self-checkout.
From TFA - this technology would allow Wally World to to employees conversations at checkout. This ALSO means listening to customers conversations. In many states this would violate eavesdropping/wiretap laws. Where They require BOTH parties to agree to be recorded. If Wally World doesn't explicitly get customers approval to be recorded they could be in for big trouble.
The Truth is a Virus!!!
They patent "putting a microphone where you want to hear people"?
Or, is it a patent on "monitoring employees"?. Does the fact that they are specifying the employees to monitor (check-out clerks) make it patentable?
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- HST
It's a private entity that operates public buildings .. but what about the inside? What about conversations in the bathroom? What if it's aimed at someone as they open the door and it overhears something that's not? Where does this fucking end? Human nature has not caught up with technology and it's getting worse every day.
Doing so is part of a trend for Walmart. "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price", Robert Greenwald's 2005 documentary, covered how Wal-Mart set up cameras on their stores aimed at the parking lots in order to let store staff monitor any union organizing going on within view of the cameras. Meanwhile, in Germany, Wal-Mart couldn't avoid the unionized workers so Wal-Mart does business with unionized staff.
Why go to such lengths to prevent better working conditions? The same documentary tells us that a toy made in their Shenzen China factory cost $0.18 to assemble (the worker makes less than $3/day), retails at Wal-Mart for $14.96, and "Wal-Mart imported $18B from China in 2004".
Charles Kernaghan, Director of the National Labor Committee tells us that in Bangladesh workers who sew clothing for Wal-Mart:
You can see more of Charles Kernaghan's work in "The Corporation" (2003) which is available online and in a 2-disc DVD set which has extended interviews with all of the interviewees. One segment of "The Corporation" features Kernaghan talking about the exploitation of children making "Kathie Lee Gifford" garments for Wal-Mart around 19m43s:
Digital Citizen
You must be the most niave person in history if you think a company like Walmart will use this to "help bored workers".
I am just giving examples from two ends of the spectrum. Of course in real life the actual uses will be more in the middle - but I am pointing out, as I said, that tools can be use for bad or ill and it's a bad idea just to stop development of tools because of that fact.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley