Walmart’s New Tech Will Be Able to Spy on Employees and Customers

Walmart Cashier And Customer Interaction

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Walmart has patented an audio surveillance system that would allow the company to collect recordings of conversations between cashiers and customers during transactions.

According to the patent description, the system comprises one or more sound sensors distributed throughout the shopping facility configured to receive sounds resulting from activity. A control circuit would then receive audio data that could be analyzed by the employers to create a performance metric for the employee.

Walmart’s patent application titled Listening to the Frontend, proposes that the system would help increase employee efficiency, while also decreasing costs for the shopping facility, as well as increasing customer satisfaction by tracking the performance of their employees.

“Audio data captured by the sound sensors can be used to determine a variety of performance metrics. For example, the sound sensors can capture noises (e.g., beeps) produced by a scanner when an employee scans an item and sounds created by bags (e.g., a bagging turnstile, rustling of bags, bags being placed in a cart, etc.),” says the patent application.

“Based on the noises produced by the scanner the system can determine a number of items in the transaction. Based on the sounds created by the bags, the system can determine a number of bags used in the transaction. The system can then determine how many items an employee placed in each bag during the transaction based on this information.”

America’s largest retailer may see some push back from their proposed surveillance system, as it is essentially spying on its workers and customers. Even though the specifics make it clear how the audio and data would be used, privacy concerns remain high. Furthermore, the system itself might be illegal in some of the states Walmart operates in, such as California, Florida, Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania and seven others, which have two party consent laws.

“This is a very bad idea,” Sam Lester, consumer privacy counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., told CBS News.

“If they do decide to implement this technology, the first thing we would want and expect is to know which privacy expectations are in place.”

Recently, Internet retailer Amazon raised similar privacy concerns over audio recordings. Amazon Echo users found out that the smart speaker was listening and recording more than expected and able to stockpile consumer information. Though currently Amazon’s data sharing policies remain secure, it has sparked identical concerns over consumer privacy and security.

Walmart is yet to release any details as to when the company plans to roll out the patented system but have stated that it remains a concept for now. Walmart Director of Corporate Communications Ragan Dickens told CBS News that if the company decides to move forward, employees would be notified before the system is installed.

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