“I always feel like/Somebody’s watching me/And I have no privacy”
- from “Somebody’s Watching Me” by singer-songwriter Rockwell
Do you know who, or what, may be watching you as you shop?
Some high-end stores, including Benetton, have started using high tech mannequins, the creations of an Italian company called Almax, to keep an electronic eye on their customers.
Numerous news outlets in reporting the advent of these mannequins last year uncharitably used the word “spy.”
The $5,000 so-called EyeSee device is connected to facial recognition software that analyzes the features of people who pass by, records shoppers’ details - age range, sex, race and the time they spend in the store.
And according to Bloomberg News, which reported on this development in November (bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-19/ bionic-mannequins-spy-onshoppers-to-boost-luxury-sales.html), the data have spurred retailers to adjust their window displays, store layouts and merchandising promotions.
But that’s just the most human-looking tip of the store surveillance iceberg.
These mannequins have not shown up at any stores in this area, or at least as far as we know - and if they have, no merchants are boasting about it. (Benetton used to have two Little Rock stores.)
Julie Bull, a spokesman for Little Rock-based Dillard’s Department Stores, says, no, thank you, Dillard’s has no camera-equipped mannequins in its stores, though she wouldn’t discuss what other surveillance devices the company might employ. “We don’t comment on security issues,” she says.
In a retail setting, you have to presume that every move you make, every step you take, somebody is watching you. Or at least somebody’s camera. It’s not the police (not even the Police) or Big Brother. But it is big business.
The motive isn’t sinister, or at least not very sinister.
Security cameras used to be just the front-line defense against shoplifting. With the newest form of customer surveillance equipment, retailers are trying to gather information toward what the industry calls “targeted marketing strategies”: Zeroing in on just what interests you, what you’re more likely to buy more of and what you’re likely to spend more on.
FOR YOUR ‘SECURITY’
Businesses, particularly banks and convenience stores, have used prominent security cameras for years. Ideally, they deter holdups; at worst, they provide images with which to identify stickup culprits.
However, ShopSmart magazine, a Consumer Reports publication, in its March issue, notes that many retailers are now snooping more and deeper than ever.
“Your face and car’s license plate are captured and filed in searchable databases,” the magazine says. “Hidden cameras classify you by age, sex and ethnicity, and even detect your body language and mood. Even your bank account records are being pried into.
“The main goal of these surveillance methods, of course, is to get you to shop more and spend more.” And “If all of this is news to you, it’s probably because disclosure is poor to non-existent, say experts familiar with these practices.”
Even when privacy policies for banks, retailers and apps you download contain such information, it’s unlikely you’ve ever read or decoded what you’ve agreed to, the magazine continues. After all, who actually reads those privacy policies?
“While most consumers understand a need for security cameras, few expect that the in-store video advertising monitor they’re watching … is watching them,” Pam Dixon, executive director of World Privacy Forum, a San Diego-based nonprofit research group, tells the magazine.
MAJOR MARKETS
As with the snoopy mannequins, much of the latest high-tech scanning technology has not yet made it to the smaller retail markets. All of Arkansas’ major metropolitan areas still fall into that category.
“It’s all a little too high tech for Little Rock, Arkansas,” says Tim White, general manager of Little Rock’s Park Plaza. It’s one of 95 enclosed malls operated by CBL & Associates Properties Inc. (CBLproperties.com) in 29 states.
For example, Arkansas does not yet have any outlets of Industrie Denim and American Rag, which sell high-end bluejeans. Those stores, among others, are now using so-called “booty cameras” in their dressing rooms, ostensibly so customers can more easily check the fit of their jeans from the rear and reduce returns - the rationale for retailers, the magazine explains: “Better fits equal happier customers.”
But, the magazine warns, “In the age of viral videos that can make instant stars out of the unsuspecting, you may want to ask if that camera feed is secure before turning your back on this latest retailing innovation.”
The ultimate in “body-ometry,” to coin a concept, comes from a company called Bodymetrics, a scanner that ShopSmart says is in use only at the Bloomingdale’s store at Stanford Mall in Palo Alto, Calif.
According to the magazine, it “actually goes beyond simple data collection and takes 100 measurements of your body to create a 3-D model to prescribe the most flattering fit from among premium-priced jeans such as AG, J Brand, Hudson and 7 For All Mankind.
“Your personal body map is [thereafter] accessible to you via any Internet device.” Which, of course, also leaves open the possibility that it might also be accessible to unscrupulous hackers.
“We actually did that [scanning] in some of our markets,” White says. “We called it ‘Me-ality.’” The idea was to create the best possible style of clothing designs for customers based on exact measurements, using much the same kind of technology that’s in security scanners at airports, he explains. But it wasn’t popular and was subsequently phased out.
That technology is more sophisticated, but not necessarily more invasive, than the Dr. Scholl’s kiosks in many retailers, including some of the bigger Wal-Marts, that figure out for you what type of orthotics you can buy to put in your shoes. That’s something many customers not only want, but actively seek out.
“When a store closely monitors operations to improve its service, that’s a win-win,” ShopSmart notes. “But when retailers intrude on your privacy with little or no explanation of what they’re doing or how they use your info, that’s just plain sneaky.” SUPER SPY CAMS
As for surveillance, we’re used to and generally accepting of high-resolution video cameras that monitor store interiors and exteriors and that the footage is stored and catalogued. It’s even useful in cases where there’s a robbery in a store’s parking lot.
But with facial-recognition software, the magazine notes, “your mug shot can be captured and digitally filed without your knowledge or permission. Ditto for your car’s license plate.”
And that, in turn, ShopSmart suggests, can be linked to the data from gaze trackers hidden in tiny holes in the shelving that detect which brands you’re looking at and for how long, or footage of you at the cash register plus the transaction details of what you bought, for how much, using what credit card.
“If that info is not securely stored, it could be hacked,” the magazine notes. And, the article adds, stores don’t provide sufficient disclosure, so customers can’t necessarily opt out to protect their privacy.
For example, the Target chain’s privacy policy mentions that “We use in-store cameras, primarily for security purposes, and also for operational purposes, such as measuring traffic patterns and tracking in-stock levels.” But that’s about it.
SMART-PHONE SPYING?
Here’s another possible reason to be wary: Retailers can use your mobile phone to track your shopping route through a store. The vehicle is the phone’s International Mobile Subscriber Identity number (constantly transmitted from all cell phones to their service providers) or Media Access Control address (transmitted when the device’s Wi-Fi is enabled, the default setting on most devices).
Some retailers and malls have begun to monitor all visitors’ cell signals, the magazine notes, mostly for the seemingly innocuous purpose of creating “heat maps” that glow red where the most foot traffic is and which helps them pick the best places to place displays, in-store ads,and high-margin merchandise.
However, the device could also be used to automatically detect your mobile device and monitor, through the store’s Wi-Fi network, whether you use it to check prices online against the prices on the store’s shelves. That could be off-putting, but the store could also use that information to send you a message that they’ll match lower prices you find or a digital coupon toward your in-store purchase.
PERSONAL ADS
Lots of companies use radio-frequency identification tags (known by the initials RFID) on the merchandise, ostensibly for tighter inventory control. Bentonville-based Wal-Mart has been a big champion.
Critics such as Katherine Albrecht, founder and director of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN) and co-author of Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move With RFID, have been warning for years that the tags could be used in nefarious ways to track customers’ identities and activities (spychips.com).
Now, the magazine notes, merchants can use the tags to detect when a customer picks up an item, triggering a nearby digital sign to feed them targeted ads or details about the product.
The magazine says, in so many words, that that’s a little creepy: “Not only are stores doing little or nothing to disclose that signs are watching you, but some privacy advocates also fear that the technology also could be used for discriminatory pricing based on age, sex or ethnicity.”
KEEPING PRIVACY PRIVATE
Privacy rights are a constant battle, especially where technology is concerned, as the less scrupulous find new ways to pry and consumer advocates seek new protections, ShopSmart magazine notes, adding that a recent Obama administration proposal for a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights would give consumers:
The right to control how a company collects, uses, and discloses your data to others and the option of giving, withdrawing or limiting your consent.
Upfront explanation of what data are being collected, why, what users will do with it, how long they’ll store it and whom they’ll share it with.
A requirement that users protect consumer data from hackers, thieves, and other unauthorized parties.
The ability to see and correct the information being collected and stored.
But the magazine recommends that you protect your privacy on your own:
“Always read privacy policies on retailers’ websites. Also read the permissions you’re asked to give to an app before you download it to your phone. Be sure to recheck those policies periodically.”
Style, Pages 49 on 05/26/2013