A Boring Dystopia

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Walmart Is Putting Digital Labels That Change Prices Instantly on Every Store Shelf in America (www.inc.com)

submitted 2 days ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/aboringdystopia@lemmy.world

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[–] technomage@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I definitely get what you're saying, and in any other context, I'd definitely agree. I just can't quite see it working without some sort of identifying thing, like a loyalty card or some intense customer tracking (and we all know how that went with the Amazon Go stores). Mainly because there's not a good way to identify a specific item taken from a shelf full of the item, given UPCs are the same for all units of a product so it'd have to be done by cards or tracking.

I could be wrong, but given the current state of tech, I don't really see it working in a large, busy store like a Walmart or Canadian Tire. At least, not to reliably target individuals. I could see it being used to change prices for everyone, based on time, date, temperatures, and stuff like that, but yeah...

Also, apologies if this doesn't make full sense. I'm radically under caffeinated right now 😅

[–] normalentrance@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Smartphones with WiFi can now be used as an indicator of customer presence thanks to a WiFi mechanism that is common across all such devices: probe requests. These 802.11 management frames are transmitted at regular intervals from WiFi devices. The frames contain information that can be used to identify presence, time spent, and repeat visits within range of a WiFi access point. These devices can be detected by WiFi access points irrespective of its WiFi association state meaning that even if a user does not connect his or her device to the wireless network, the device's presence can still be detected while the device is within range of the network and the device's WiFi antenna is turned on.

I'm just a developer, so admittedly I'm unsure if the frames they refer to have any uniquely identifying information. Hopefully not. At the very least they get a heat map of where phones are in the store.

If you connect to the wifi they will get your MAC address for sure, but that's usually randomized every time you connect.

Hypothetically if you hop on their wifi they can track your device for the duration of that connection all the way to the register. Then you use your credit card or rewards programs and they can put it together. (When I swipe my card at microcenter they always say "do you still live on.." since I've purchased online from them.)

Locally at one of our sports stadiums you swipe your card walk in to a snack area, grab what you want, and walk out with it. They use cameras and other sensor to make that possible. If they can figure it out Walmart certainly can.

This is all tinfoil hat stuff based on pieces of information I have, but it sure is interesting to think about.

[–] technomage@lemmy.ca 2 points 20 hours ago

Yeah, there's definitely ways of tracking people even today. I just don't really see it working at scale without the customer actively doing something to "opt in" to that kind of tracking system, like loyalty cards, connecting to the wifi, etc. Mind you, I'm just some nerd, so I could be wrong/missing something, but yeah lol