ian@airs.UUCP (Ian Lance Taylor) (01/29/91)
In article <15232@milton.u.washington.edu> cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) writes: > >From BUSINESS WEEK, Feb. 4, 1991: > ... > The automated system, from Datatec Industries in Fairfield, >N.J., goes beyond an electronic eye that counts people passing >through a beam at a store entrance. > [ and does other neat stuff ] This is an interesting system, but it doesn't really bother me. An electric eye obviously can't recognize people, and if a store wants to keep track of how many people come at what time, and what they buy, I have no problem with it; I can think of several ways they could use the information to make the store more ``efficient'' and thus possibly lower prices (e.g. deciding how many cashiers to hire for a certain time period). If the information were personalized, that *would* bother me. Are people out there worried about this sort of system, and if so, why? -- Ian Taylor uunet!airs!ian | If I were employed, my opinions would not be airs!ian@uunet.uu.net | my employer's. As it is, they are not anyone's.
cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) (01/29/91)
>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.
Bob J.