Grocery Shelves Will Now be Spying on Us

As if we don’t have enough to worry about, now we need to start thinking about being spied on while we do our grocery shopping.  Food giant Mondelez International, parent company of Nabisco, Kraft and Cadbury, is said to be planning on introducing “smart shelves” to grocery stores by the year 2015. 

Working with Microsoft Kinect, Mondelez International is said to be working on a system to identify shoppers walking down the food aisle.  Using facial recognition, these “smart shelves” will be able to identify shoppers by age and gender.  Once identified, a coupon will appear near a food or snack targeted to that particular shopper.  For example:  If a woman in her early 30s walks by, there’s a good chance she may be thinking about chocolate.  As she approaches the shelf for Cadbury chocolates, a coupon will pop up.

Along with facial recognition, the smart shelves will also have weight sensors installed.  This way, if a shopper over the age of 18 picks a box up from the shelf, a coupon could be sent to “persuade” the shopper into buying that product.  The coupon will come by way of either a dispenser or a display screen.  Tech writer Brian Fung of the Washington Post says of this technology, “it’s not quite Minority Report levels of creepiness, but it’s getting there.”, while Neal Ungerleider of Fastcompany.com said it’s “the ultimate in creepy, yet inevitable marketing tech.”  Personally, I have to agree with Neal about it being the ultimate in creepy.

According to Mondelez’s CIO Mark Dajani, no videos or photos of specific shoppers will be saved.  The information will only be used to collect information about the types of shoppers looking at the products or walking down the grocery store aisles.  It could help food companies with product placement so as to maximize sales.

Will You Sign Up For Facedeals?

Facedeals will offer you "specials" by facial recognition

My morning ritual begins with turning on my TV to catch the news.  One story this morning really grabbed my attention in a very disturbing way.  It was about a new technology called “Facedeals”, which could be one of the more frightening apps to come our way.

RedPepper Labs, a development group headquartered in Nashville, TN has just announced its latest entry into the world of digital technology.  They call it Facedeals, and the testing has begun.  As I was listening to this story, I started to be concerned about how this could put everyone’s privacy at risk.  Facedeals will be connected to your Facebook account and will use facial recognition to pinpoint your location whenever you enter your favorite shops and restaurants.

Unlike FourSquare, where you physically have to enter your location, the only action you need to complete with Facedeals is to walk in the door.  As you approach the door, a camera placed outside the shop will scan your face and link it to Facebook’s application program interface (or API) and associate it with your “Likes” so that shop will be able to offer you discounts and other deals accordingly.

Before this app can scan you, you must approve it through your Facebook settings, which at least gives you some control.  If you choose to approve Facedeals, you will be asked to scan one of the newest photos you have of yourself.  After that, each time you enter a business that has a Facedeals camera at the door, that business will know you are there, will know the Facebook “Likes” you have that are relevant to that business, and you will be sent special offers to your cell phone within seconds.

Since installation of these cameras doesn’t require anything more than a wall outlet and WiFi connection, they can be place anywhere.  For now, the test area is limited to Nashville, Tennessee, but RedPepper is hoping to soon expand the area.

It’s too soon to tell how quickly Facedeals will be accepted by the public.  Personally, I can’t imagine that a large amount of people would be willing to be “followed” around like this.  I know that I would feel as if I were being stalked, so I will not be approving this app.  My privacy is too important to me to have strangers know my “Likes” when it comes to everything from fashion sense to favorite meals.

Privacy is such a valuable asset.  Learn how to avoid risk by downloading the free Internet Privacy Guide at the top of the page.  After all, keeping your privacy safe is well worth the few minutes it takes to download the Guide.