Shop-Rite is now using facial ID

[RJG]

I went grocery shopping at the Shop-Rite in Marmora, NJ after work yesterday and as I was walking inside there was a TV screen above the entrance door with my face on it and a sign that said, “We use facial ID.”

I’m not a fan of using this technology to combat shop lifting. It infringes on everybody’s privacy and it reeks of George Orwell’s 1984. It’s the kind of control the Communist government in China uses to keep its people in line. What is Shop-Rite going to do with this information? Are they going to use it to check a person’s social media posts? Are they going to sell any information they find out about you to advertisers?

How do you feel about this?

 

[bobpbx]

Not sure how I feel about it, but I frequent all the stores route 72 has to offer; target, walmart, home depot, lowes, costco, Bj's, shoprite, etc, etc....and they all say that people are robbing them and they need to keep up the vigilance. In that regard, I'm okay with it. The thieves make it hard for everyone. The big box hardware stores are particularly on-guard. Tools are disappearing.

 

[Boyd]

I don't like it and don't think the two Shoprites I go to have adopted it (or haven't posted any signs about it, at least). But really, it's just par for the course. If you think you have any privacy today, it's an illusion. And any store with video cameras (which is every store) has the potential to use it. If law enforcement felt there was a connection to a major crime, they would be scanning those videos, trying to identify people.

The stores should have a privacy policy that says what they do with information they collect about you. But I think you can count on the fact that it will eventually be used for marketing purposes. Meanwhile, AI bots are scouring the internet to build profiles of you - no visit to Shoprite required. I've read that license plate readers are also commonly used in the parking lots of stores. Some fast food places have programs where they recognize your car in the drive-through and evidently recommend things to order.

But if you're upset about Shoprite privacy... do you have one of those discount cards to show to the cashier and save a few bucks? Those are prime examples of an invasion of privacy that people willingly submit to. Why do you think they have those programs? To help the consumer? LOL. The credit card companies already know everything you buy, but (as I understand) they don't share that info with merchants like Shoprite and that's why they have these programs. I don't have any cards like that and the cashiers almost always offer to enter the store card for me.

But the privacy battle is already over... and we lost. Now we just have to make the best of it.

 

[bobpbx]

Yes, I've resisted the acme's digital coupons for the last 3 years. We all know whey they do it; because they save money and they can tailor the ads to you. But I hate that something can be less inexpensive to those who have the digital coupon app on their phone. I got so angry I put it on my phone because they were offering 3 bags of chips for $1.50 each vs the store price of $3.25 per bag (but only if you used a digital coupon). However, when I did it, I had to go to the front desk because the people who enter the data on the price cards screwed up. Wasted my time.

 

[RJG]

I work in high end vacation homes along the coast and they all have smart technology. The homeowner might live hundreds of miles away, but they can watch me through their cameras and they can hear anything I say. Their security system keeps a record of what time I arrive in the morning, when I go to lunch and when I go home. They know if I adjusted their thermostat. That took some getting used to.

I don’t like all the surveillance we’re being subjected to today. Ez-Pass, my phone, Alexa, my GPS, my home security system, all recording my movements.

Facial ID may catch a dumb shop-lifter, but a half-way smart thief can walk into Shop-Rite wearing a facial mask, sunglasses and a baseball cap and defeat their facial ID.

 

[manumuskin]

You can't piss in the woods today without someone getting a kick out of it on their phone. Yeah its that bad. I bet Beulah Balllbreaker has a camera or two out there