Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!airs!ian
From: ian@airs.UUCP (Ian Lance Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: ShopperTrak POS System
Summary: Do people dislike this?
Message-ID: <1194@airs.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jan 91 20:05:29 GMT
References: <15232@milton.u.washington.edu>
Organization: AIRS, Waltham, MA
Lines: 25

In article <15232@milton.u.washington.edu> cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) writes:
>
>From BUSINESS WEEK, Feb. 4, 1991:
> ...
>	The automated system, from Datatec Industries in Fairfield,
>N.J., goes beyond an electronic eye that counts people passing
>through a beam at a store entrance.
> [ and does other neat stuff ]

This is an interesting system, but it doesn't really bother me.  An
electric eye obviously can't recognize people, and if a store wants to
keep track of how many people come at what time, and what they buy, I
have no problem with it; I can think of several ways they could use
the information to make the store more ``efficient'' and thus possibly
lower prices (e.g. deciding how many cashiers to hire for a certain
time period).

If the information were personalized, that *would* bother me.

Are people out there worried about this sort of system, and if so,
why?
-- 
Ian Taylor
uunet!airs!ian         |  If I were employed, my opinions would not be
airs!ian@uunet.uu.net  |  my employer's.  As it is, they are not anyone's.