[comp.org.eff.talk] ShopperTrak System

jgd@Dixie.Com (John G. DeArmond) (01/29/91)

cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) writes:

>>Re Datatec, the people-scanner device

>It doesn't take too much imagination to consider hooking up this
>person-scanner to a closed-circuit TV and then tracking buying
>behavior in a most intimate way.  But I guess you really don't
>need the scanner; it just makes the process more efficient.


Why?  That would server no useful purpose.  These people are not interested
in your buying habits because they are closet voyeurs.  They want the
information so that they can make more money or spend less, in the case
of insurance companies.  They don't want to sell your picture; they want to
sell the fact that you bought 50 lbs of steak in the last month and that
your wife bought an EPT kit.

I have no real problem with systems like this.  There could be some real
consumer benefits such as isles optimized for how most people shop and
shelves stocked with what people want.  The downside is that if you 
happen to like an unpopular product, they will be more likely to dump it
in favor of faster moving goods.

The Frequent Buyer programs were at first represented to be nothing more than
a demographics system in which the purchasing habits of many could be 
statistically analyzed.  The personal ID was supposed to only be for the
purpose of facilitating award payments.  My, how things change once the
greedy get involved.

John

-- 
John De Armond, WD4OQC        | "Purveyors of speed to the Trade"  (tm)
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