That self-checkout kiosk at the grocery store changed how I think about surveillance

I was at the Safeway on Main Street last Tuesday, ringing up my own stuff, when I noticed the camera above the screen kept blinking red every time I grabbed a bag of apples. Then the speaker crackled and a voice said "please place item in the bagging area" even though I already had. That's when it hit me that these machines are tracking every single move I make, not just the barcode scans. Do you think stores are using that data to build profiles on how we shop, not just to stop theft?

2 comments

2 Comments

quinn_fox2d agoMost Upvoted

Used to roll my eyes at this stuff but now I'm creeped out too (and I hate being wrong about things like this).

dylan_anderson2d ago

Wait, is this really that deep though? I mean yeah those cameras blink and the voice gets annoying when you're just trying to bag your milk weird, but I think people overthink this. Stores already track everything through loyalty cards and credit cards anyway, that's way more data than some grainy camera watching you struggle to scan a bag of apples. Plus those machines barely work half the time, if they're building some master profile on me then they must think I'm the world's most confused shopper considering I have to rescan my bread three times.