Technology automatically IDs consumers (takes pictures as you buy a product)

WorldNetDaily ^ | July 19, 2003 | Jon Dougherty

[FairOpinion]

A consumer-privacy advocate says the nation's largest shaving-products manufacturer, in conjunction with an umbrella research group, is developing "smart shelf" in-store technology that not only tracks products but also builds an identity profile of the consumer doing the buying.

Close-up of RFID tag.

According to published reports, the technology in question – Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID – uses a microchip with an antenna capable of sending out a signal that enables a computer to "see" the product. As WorldNetDaily has reported, RFID technology is being considered for use by companies such as Wal-Mart to track inventory in distribution centers.

Shaving-products maker Gillette and Wal-Mart had agreed to employ the smart-shelf technology at one of the retailer's stores in Brockton, Mass., this summer. The Gillette products would be equipped with tiny RFID chips that sent a radio signal to store personnel, alerting them when in-store stocks of merchandise were near empty. Wal-Mart, however, has decided not to use smart shelf for the time being.

But Katherine Albrecht, founder and director of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, or CASPIAN, says Gillette is getting ready to deploy the technology, which is being championed by the AutoID Center, on its products. And she says there is more involved than meets the eye.

Not only will the technology provide store managers with real-time in-store stock figures for Gillette products, but – via small cameras – it will also snap a picture of the consumer taking the product off the shelf, she told WorldNetDaily.

From that point, Albrecht said in a wide-ranging interview, "a reader device at the check-out also reads the presence of the chip and takes a second picture of that [consumer]."

Then, at the end of the day, "these pictures … are all printed out, and security sits down and goes through them, making sure that the person who picked up that Gillette product from the shelf actually paid for it at the check stand," she said.

"If they see any pictures where 'Camera A' took a picture but 'Camera B' did not take a picture of the payment, then that person's picture is blown up and becomes a sort of mug shot," she told WorldNetDaily. "And then the stores will have security personnel on the lookout for that person, I'm assuming through observation. If that person is spotted again, they are put under surveillance for their entire shopping trip."

In essence, Albrecht concluded, consumers will be guilty until proven innocent – even if all the shopper did was change his or her mind and set the product down in a different part of the store – and everyone will be photographed, under the guise of "security."

Information posted on the AutoID website gives an indication of the group's grand plans. The center, in combination with 100 global companies and five universities around the world, have formed a "unique partnership" in hopes of "creating the standards and assembling the building blocks needed to create an 'Internet of things.'"

"Put a tag … on a can of Coke or a car axle, and suddenly a computer can 'see' it. Put tags on every can of Coke and every car axle, and suddenly the world changes," says a description of the group posted on the center's website. "No more inventory counts. No more lost or misdirected shipments. No more guessing how much material is in the supply chain - or how much product is on the store shelves.

"Auto-ID Center is designing, building, testing and deploying a global infrastructure – a layer on top of the Internet – that will make it possible for computers to identify any object anywhere in the world instantly," said the description.

The center is attempting to develop standards that can identify products regardless of which company tags them.

Involved in the research is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S.; the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom; the University of Adelaide in Australia; Keio University in Japan; and the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

"Phase one, two and three testing has been completed, and now they're moving on to phase four," or deployment, Albrecht said.

In the first phase, developers were just making sure the technology actually worked. In phase two, the RFID technology was placed on warehouse pallets and crates, so companies could track inventory. Phase three, she says, is placing the technology on products.

The Economist, a Britain-based financial magazine, reported in February that smart shelf technology has been deployed on store shelves in Cambridge, England.

And in January, the magazine reported, "Gillette announced that it had put in an order for half a billion smart tags, signaling the start of their adoption by the consumer-goods industry.

"If they catch on, smart tags will soon be made in their trillions and will replace the bar-code on the packaging of almost everything that consumer-goods giants such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever make," said the magazine's report, which also said Gillette was buying its tags from a company called Alien Technology.

"Once you begin to track products, you begin to track people," Albrecht told WorldNetDaily.

Gillette could not be reached for comment.

The consumer-privacy advocate said some companies have expressed an interest in very elaborate tracking systems. She said such systems would photograph consumers and superimpose their pictures with an itemized receipt of goods purchased, along with any other credit card or related information that will help identify the person. With the photo identification aspect, even consumers who pay cash could be later identified.

"This technology is already out there," Albrecht said. "Eventually, I fear it can and will be made available to law enforcement."

[FairOpinion]

How would you like to have a picture taken of you every time you take a product off the shelf, then again at the checkout, and of course they also know everything about you, if you use a grocery store discout card, or pay with check or credit card.

And people complain about TIA (the government's research program with the purpose to find correlating info to prevent terrorism).

[AntiGuv]

[FairOpinion]

Here is another article at WND about this, some of the info is duplicative, but there is also additional information:


Radio tracking of merchandise has privacy advocates steaming

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33647

[sinkspur]

How would you like to have a picture taken of you every time you take a product off the shelf, then again at the checkout, and of course they also know everything about you, if you use a grocery store discout card, or pay with check or credit card.

I wouldn't, and it is not going to happen!

This nutty Albrecht is with CASPIAN, which thinks that store discount cards are the "mark of the beast." She's clearly deranged.

Just read this:

Not only will the technology provide store managers with real-time in-store stock figures for Gillette products, but – via small cameras – it will also snap a picture of the consumer taking the product off the shelf, she told WorldNetDaily.

From that point, Albrecht said in a wide-ranging interview, "a reader device at the check-out also reads the presence of the chip and takes a second picture of that [consumer]."

Then, at the end of the day, "these pictures … are all printed out, and security sits down and goes through them, making sure that the person who picked up that Gillette product from the shelf actually paid for it at the check stand," she said.

"If they see any pictures where 'Camera A' took a picture but 'Camera B' did not take a picture of the payment, then that person's picture is blown up and becomes a sort of mug shot," she told WorldNetDaily. "And then the stores will have security personnel on the lookout for that person, I'm assuming through observation. If that person is spotted again, they are put under surveillance for their entire shopping trip."

I've got one question: who's going to look at all those pictures? And change the disc in the little cameras? And make the comparison?

And who in hell thinks they would go to all this trouble for a FIVE DOLLAR RAZOR?

You and NewsMax have been had, again, by the conspiracy-minded CASPIAN fruitcakes.

[AntiGuv]

I've got one question: who's going to look at all those pictures? And change the disc in the little cameras? And make the comparison?

I'm not saying this is what's happening here (because it's not) but once quantum computing becomes a reality within the next couple decades, it'll take no more effort to catalogue everyone's movements than installation of face recognition software...

The it's-too-complex argument will begin wearing thin any year now... We are complacent at our peril..

[sinkspur]

I'm not saying this is what's happening here (because it's not) but once quantum computing becomes a reality within the next couple decades, it'll take no more effort to catalogue everyone's movements than installation of face recognition software..

If you're a retailer, why would you do this, unless it lets you identify a shoplifter before he leaves the store?

Once he's out the door, he's gone.

RFID is a valuable supply-chain technology, that allows the identification of inventory much more quickly and readily, and tracks product from manufacture to sale.

The idea that Wal-Mart cares who you are, except to sell you more of the same or similar product when you come in again, is preposterous.

[FairOpinion]

Actually I think they can program the computer to do the comparison and keep the pictures of course.

And you'd be surprised how much money companies spend to find out who their consumers are, so they can target the right people and figure out why some others aren't buying their product and of course how to get them to do that.

Via the grocery store discount card they are already keeping track of who buys what, they can probable tell you exactly how many boxes of Cheerios you bought last year. And I am sure they are profiling shoppers by age, gender, whether it appears they are buying for a family, and "those who bought product X also tend to buy product Y". They have it all down, people just aren't aware of prefer to live in denial. As soon as you finish shopping, those personalized coupon you get are based on what you bought, it's all in the computer.

I am sure there are already massive private data banks about people, which are used by companies to tarket customers.

This is not fiction, it's going on.

I don't know about this Albrecht person, but it's a fact that information is collected about people all the time.

Even banks sell people's info about their net worth and so on to others.

[G.Mason]

"I've got one question: who's going to look at all those pictures? And change the disc in the little cameras? And make the comparison?"

Thanks for pointing out the obvious.

[sinkspur]

I don't know about this Albrecht person, but it's a fact that information is collected about people all the time.

And, if you want to insure against data collection, just don't use credit or store discount cards, and pay in cash.

Consumers have choice, and most prefer a discount to worrying about whether their name is Kroger's database.

[AntiGuv]

I'm unconcerned with WalMart's use of the technology in the context which they've stated they'll use it. My concerns relate to the overall implications of this and other parallel technological advancements. The time will soon arrive when it's of no great effort to catalogue & database everyone's daily activities. What we as a society do with that power will determine what kind of society we will become. That's my concerns.

We need a well-drafted Privacy Amendment...

[FairOpinion]

"We are complacent at our peril.. "

--

I agree. In fact, I think it's already too late. All your personal information is already out there and to assume nobody put together your bank information with your shopping habits, is to live in a dream world.

The credit reporting agencies collect all the info about your loans, credit cards, where you live, what car you drive and how much you owe on it, what's your mortgage, have you ever missed a payments or were you ever late.

Each credit card company knows exactly where you shopped and how much you spent. The stores knows exactly what you bought, and who you are, since you used a credit card.

Grocery stores know exactly what you buy every time if you use their discount card, a credit card, or check.

Most people aren't aware that their medical records could be available to insurace companies and the subscribers to that information from the Medical Information Bureau.
http://www.mib.com/

And this is just a start...

[FairOpinion]

The point is that privacy is already just an illusion.

[sinkspur]

The time will soon arrive when it's of no great effort to catalogue & database everyone's daily activities.

That time will never come. I'm more than a little familiar with computer technology, and Quantum or no, the ROI on tracking every person's movements, every minute of the day, cataloguing them in a database, then running analytics against them will never be justified.

My city's government can't even synchronize traffic lights, and that technology has been around for what? 60 years?

[Jhoffa_]

"If they see any pictures where 'Camera A' took a picture but 'Camera B' did not take a picture of the payment, then that person's picture is blown up and becomes a sort of mug shot,"... If that person is spotted again, they are put under surveillance for their entire shopping trip."

So much for picking up fallen merchandise from the isleways and putting it back like a good boy scout.

[Jhoffa_]

My city's government can't even synchronize traffic lights, and that technology has been around for what? 60 years?

It has to be a series of relays, no sweat for a computer.

An amateur could even do it in basic.

[sinkspur]

The point is that privacy is already just an illusion.

No. The point is, you choose to use all of this technology that you say compromises your privacy.

If you don't want banks having your information, don't use a bank.

I don't see what the problem is here. So your information is sitting in a computer someplace. Is it just the idea that somebody knows you bought a roll of Charmin that you don't like? Or do you think there will eventually be a toilet-paper police that will make sure you don't buy more than your share?

What?

[AntiGuv]

[George from New England]

My city's government can't even synchronize traffic lights, and that technology has been around for what? 60 years?
It has to be a series of relays, no sweat for a computer.

An amateur could even do it in basic.

---

They don't want to sychronize the lights. You are bad and you should be forced to use mass-transportation you know!

[longtermmemmory]

With the photo identification aspect, even consumers who pay cash could be later identified.

*** ***

---

Most interesting aspect, especially if all databases become linked. No more sheltered income. No more cash anonymity. (an argument for veils? hide those distinct ears?)

(Note: In europe, pre-euro countries would change their currency format and declare you had so many years to cash in or the money would be worthless at the expiration date. Electronic tags can have automatic expriation on whole series of currency, at least currency not in banks.)

[FairOpinion]

"If you don't want banks having your information, don't use a bank."

---

Sure, and if you don't want your medical information in the medical data base, don't go to a doctor,when you are having a heart attack, right?
http://www.mib.com/

Just a few excerpts from their own site:

"There are over 600 member companies who agree to share information in the form of medical and avocation "codes". There are approximately 230 codes, which MIB uses to signify different medical conditions. A very few of these indicate risks involving hazardous avocations or adverse driving records, etc.
.....

For example, if an underwriter, while reviewing medical records discovered that this person had had a heart attack, there would be a specific code to indicate that, and the underwriter would check MIB for such a code and if there was none there, he or she would add this code to the file.
.....

Back in 1987, MIB introduced the Insurance Activity Index (IAI), which would report any time a member company requested MIB information within the last 2 years.

The other main reason why this IAI is important is to alert a company to a situation where someone might be trying to load up on insurance by applying for a series of smaller policies that might fall below the radar screen for other underwriting requirements.
"

[sinkspur]

I'm still not sure what your point is. You obviously don't like companies having so much information about you, yet you freely give it to them.

Past histories about drivers or medical conditions are important to insurance companies, and to me, since I don't want to subsidize your accident-prone teenage son.

[Jhoffa_]

They don't want to sychronize the lights. You are bad and you should be forced to use mass-transportation you know!

But, but.. I like trees! I even de-ticked a racoon the other day!

No, no, Not me! I like my big pickup truck! These rules are supposed to apply to everyone else!

You know, the other guy's who aren't as earth friendly as I am!

[sinkspur]

Sure, and if you don't want your medical information in the medical data base, don't go to a doctor,when you are having a heart attack, right?

Wouldn't your doctor appreciate knowing certain things about you if you were having a heart attack?

Like not giving you a medication that interacts negatively with another that you were taking and cause you to die?

[The Hon. Galahad Threepwood]

This is the first time I've heard that these are going to be used to take pictures, and frankly, given that this is unconfirmed by any sort of evidence, I don't believe it.

They couldn't possibly save enough in shoplifting to pay for the additional manpower to go through the pictures and follow shoppers around.

[Hajman]

They couldn't possibly save enough in shoplifting to pay for the additional manpower to go through the pictures and follow shoppers around.

Perhaps, perhaps not. But with the right type of software, searching pictures could be quite efficient (cross link an item that left the shelf, wasn't bought, and the image of the person taking it, and you have yourself a possible shoplifter link), and what the technology might be able to offer demographic targeting may be worth it to the stores to use.

-The Hajman-

[Jhoffa_]

PS: The mark of the beast cometh.

It's going to have to be a situation where people are introduced to a cashless society slowly, but surely.

Non-christians will laugh, but it's going to happen all the same.

The only thing that troubles me is so many people who not only don't care to participate themselves, and will probably die out before it comes to fruition, but the number of people who don't care what happens to their children and childrens children, who may well have to endure it.

"What the hell, I'll be dead.. so why should I care about any of that stuff. OHH LOOK, Oprah's on!"

[deport]

Be careful ever so careful..... data mining is the future... wait until the chip becomes mandatory.... Give up your cards, close your bank accounts, don't use cell phones, computers, etc. , get a horse and buggy, use candles...... yep be ever on the look out.... lol. Heck there are tons of info out there on each of us now...

Publicdata.com has been accumulating data from the public sources such as court houses and compiling it for use by anyone willing to subscribe to their service. Most people would be amazed at what others can find out about them with not a lot of effort.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will not track inventory by selling products tagged with tiny computer chips, a technology that one day could allow retailers to "follow" merchandise from the store shelf into a customer's home.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, and Gillette Co., the world's largest shaving-supplies maker, had planned to conduct a "smart shelf" trial at a Wal-Mart store in Brockton, Mass., this summer.

The chips would have been part of a radio-frequency identification system, called RFID, the same technology that opens office doors for employees who carry "smart ID" cards and allows motorists with an "EZ pass" tag to breeze through highway toll plazas.

[SauronOfMordor]

(Note: In europe, pre-euro countries would change their currency format and declare you had so many years to cash in or the money would be worthless at the expiration date. Electronic tags can have automatic expriation on whole series of currency, at least currency not in banks.)

Each dollar bill currently has a magnetic stripe with its serial on it. It would only be a minor enhancement to ATM's to read the stripe and record a list of the serial#'s of the $20's you were issued. When you spend your money, most of the 20's you spend will go straight from the store back to the bank, where the automated money counter could also read the stripe (which could be cost-justified purely from being able to immediately catch counterfeit bills). A computer matchup results in knowing where you spent your money. The banks could make money from this purely from the demographic marketing data they could sell ("many people who shop at the supermarket on 10th and Chestnut also eat at the diner on 12th and Walnut").

If more than two $20's issued by an ATM to you wind up in a wad confiscated from a drug dealer, then you have a problem. Likewise if any cash issued to you gets deposited by a bookstore specializing in radical political books

[FairOpinion]

"I'm still not sure what your point is."

---

My point is that people got all up in arms over the TIA system, which intends to find patterns to identify terrorists and are either unaware or don't care that their privacy is already nonexistent, because of the extensive private databasis that already exist, have been around for years, and getting more and more sophisticated every day.

I personally think that identifying terrorists before they perpetrate their terrorist acts is more important, and those systems were not intending to track individuals, only identify patterns, then identify the individuals who engage in that pattern of behavior -- there is a difference.

So I think that people complain about the less invasive thing, while being totally complacent over much more invasive things. Actually your information in private databasis is much more of a "threat" that unscrupulous people and companies can use that against you to defraud you.

[FairOpinion]

This is not going to your doctor, this goes to anyone who subscribes to the MIB, such as insurance companies and employers. Would you like to be denied employment, because your employer finds out you had a heart attack a few years ago?

[mewzilla]

Here's my solution:

[FairOpinion]

"given that this is unconfirmed by any sort of evidence"

---

????!!!!!

Check out the website of the company who is making the chips.

http://www.alientechnology.com/

You can read all about it. Including other news articles.


Here is one:

Alien Announces Major Order for Low-cost RFID Tags
Enters Supply Agreement to Provide 500 Million Units to The Gillette Company

http://www.alientechnology.com/library/pr/alien_gillette.htm

[FairOpinion]

"It would only be a minor enhancement to ATM's to read the stripe and record a list of the serial#'s of the $20's you were issued. When you spend your money, most of the 20's you spend will go straight from the store back to the bank, where the automated money counter could also read the stripe "

---

Exactly. What you describe is NOT science fiction.

[BlazingArizona]

A consumer-privacy advocate says the nation's largest shaving-products manufacturer, in conjunction with an umbrella research group, is developing "smart shelf" in-store technology that not only tracks products but also builds an identity profile of the consumer doing the buying.

I bet that the largest and most complex database in the world is the one full of people who ever stopped off at Radio Shack to buy a battery.

[sinkspur]

It would only be a minor enhancement to ATM's to read the stripe and record a list of the serial#'s of the $20's you were issued. When you spend your money, most of the 20's you spend will go straight from the store back to the bank, where the automated money counter could also read the stripe (which could be cost-justified purely from being able to immediately catch counterfeit bills). A computer matchup results in knowing where you spent your money. The banks could make money from this purely from the demographic marketing data they could sell ("many people who shop at the supermarket on 10th and Chestnut also eat at the diner on 12th and Walnut").

Besides the fact that banks don't account for each and every bill by matching it to which store deposited it (and what happens to the bill that is given in change? It never gets put into the demographic), of what value to a restaurant is the information that a customer shops at a particular grocery store? Or to a dry cleaner?

Matching bills to a particular bank customer makes no sense, especially when the bank makes more money by enticing you to get a credit card.

[The Hon. Galahad Threepwood]

I'm sorry, but can you point me to one page on that site which talks about these tags controling cameras which take pictures of shoppers? I haven't been able to find one, and the one you pointed me to says nothing of the sort.

[sinkspur]

Would you like to be denied employment, because your employer finds out you had a heart attack a few years ago?

If he offers me a health plan, the information will get to him anyway, via the application I submit to the health plan.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

I will now begin to take things from one shelf and leave them on another, as I pick another brand.

[sinkspur]

I'm sorry, but can you point me to one page on that site which talks about these tags controling cameras which take pictures of shoppers? I haven't been able to find one, and the one you pointed me to says nothing of the sort.

They don't. That's the fantasy of CASPIAN.

Can you imagine fifteen minimum wage security guards sitting around, at the end of the business day, poring over pictures, trying to match up which guy picked up a pack of blades to the same guy paying for the blades?

Oh, and can you imagine these same Einstein's actually REMEMBERING the same guy the next time he comes in the store?

This is paranoid conspiracy nonsense, just as are the worries about RFIDs.

[sinkspur]

I will now begin to take things from one shelf and leave them on another, as I pick another brand.

Ah, but the hair-trigger security guards will tag you as a thief, and will wrestle you to the ground the next time you come in the door, because Camera A saw you pick up the product, but Camera B didn't see you pay for it.

See how silly this is? And they're talking about doing this for a FIVE DOLLAR RAZOR!

[FairOpinion]

How is this?

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003May/gee20030509019926.htm

Japanese shoppers are soon to be under the close scrutiny of radio frequency identity (RFID) tracking systems when they enter certain shops. Shops will be able to place trackers around their stores to allow them to garner information about what customers do within the shop. Information such as exactly where the customers have walked, what they have picked up, and the amount of time spent at locations can all be recorded. From this information shop owners will be able to see where the high traffic areas are, what products attract the most attention, and generally how they can improve the layout of the store. It may also allow them to charge more for certain items placed in high-traffic areas, and move more unpopular stock by product replacement.

The fears associated with such a system have to do with customer privacy and whether such tracking systems break the law. Privacy advocates have always been against the use of RFID tags in this way because it gives the retailer access to so much information about individuals.

Read more at ZDNet UK, and check out our previous coverage of RFID technology from March 2003 and April 2003.

[The Hon. Galahad Threepwood]

Nope, still nothing about cameras and pictures. Now you're just wasting my time.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

..... and they will end up in court in a county where I helped elect every sitting judge except one who is retiring. There is NO law that says I must replace anything to the same shelf I removed it from.

NEVER ROLL OVER FOR THIS CRAP!

[sinkspur]

Non-christians will laugh, but it's going to happen all the same.

Most christians will laugh, too. Surely you, of all people, are not falling for this foolishness?

[FairOpinion]

"Shops will be able to place trackers around their stores to allow them to garner information about what customers do within the shop. Information such as exactly where the customers have walked, what they have picked up, and the amount of time spent at locations can all be recorded."

--

So they don't specifically mention cameras. How else do you think they are tracing customers, unless they implant a chip IN the customer as they enter the store, and track that chip? I suppose they could implant a chip in the shopping cart, then match it to you at the checkout.

Even if they don't specifically photograph you, it's clear they can track you what you buy, what you look at, where you go in the store, etc. Apparently none of that bothers you.

[sinkspur]

Even if they don't specifically photograph you, it's clear they can track you what you buy, what you look at, where you go in the store, etc. Apparently none of that bothers you.

Unless I'm a thief, why should it?

You're free to shop somewhere where they don't watch you. Of course, it may be more expensive to shop there, since their shrinkage is likely to be higher.

[longtermmemmory]

hmm perhaps this new fangled right to privacy may be of use after all...

[longtermmemmory]

new camera systems can be locked to automatically track a particualr person.

[Jhoffa_]

Surely you, of all people, are not falling for this foolishness?

It's scriptural.. A mark to buy and sell. If that's what it says, it's good enough for me.

I believe in creation as related in Genesis also.