Metaphors of Life Journal: Beware - Big Brother Walmart May Be Watching

Hmmm, should I wear dark glasses the next time I venture into my local Walmart?

I am delving into one of my favourite subjects again: invasive technology. I will try not to turn this into a rant. But I cannot make any guarantees.

Walmart is reported to be developing facial recognition technology to detected frustrated shoppers. The software monitors facial expressions and movements to identify a customer’s level of dissatisfaction. If the system detects a disgruntled customer, it signals employees who – in theory at least – can arrive on the scene to remedy the problem.

You may argue that Walmart deserves a tip of the hat for being concerned enough about customer satisfaction to invest in technology to measure it. But I might counter with: Is that in fact their primary motive? More on that question in a moment.

I am not pleased to know that I might be on camera when I am in the Walmart checkout line. I have been known to mumble to myself when I am frustrated or displeased. Knowing that my idiosyncrasies will be scrutinized and recorded is unsettling.

What if I become famous? The Walmart recording could end up being the featured video on YouTube! It will not do my celebrity reputation any good for the masses to see me muttering and mumbling while I wait to pay for Fruit of the Loom underwear and a discount bottle of magnesium tablets for my moody digestive system.

And what if there is a particularly attractive young woman in the line in front of me? Will the system detect my state of arousal and set off alarm bells like a slot machine lighting up when someone hits the jackpot? My public profile will take a serious hit if that hits the airwaves.

(Yes, these concerns are predicated on the possibility of me becoming famous. I do realize that is low on the probability scale. Infamous, maybe.)

Further down in the article reporting this news, I read that Walmart might also use this technology to analyze trends in shoppers’ behaviour over time. My facial expressions, aka “biometric data”, can be linked to transaction data to draw conclusions.

The pessimist in me jumps to the conclusion that detecting and responding to customer dissatisfaction is just a smoke screen to cover the real purpose of the software – figuring out ways to entice me to buy more regardless of whether I am satisfied or not.

There is also, as always with this kind of technology, the privacy issue. Should Walmart be permitted to videotape me without my knowledge or consent? Or, for that matter, to store knowledge about me that may or may not be accurate.

I admit that this post has turned into a mild rant. I did warn you. But the Big Brother metaphor always comes to mind in these snooping technology scenarios. I for one have way too many personality quirks to be comfortable being featured on Walmart’s version of candid camera

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.
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Published on July 29, 2017 15:39 Tags: biometrics, facial-recognition-technology, metaphor, michael-robert-dyet, walmart
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