WalMart

[Bengalzona]

(06-11-2018, 04:01 PM)Au165 Wrote: Couple things here, while the technology you mentioned does exist it isn't used quite the way you project it just yet. The camera's at Walmart are in fact for security and the monitor is there to connect the dots to people coming in that you are being recorded on camera.

There are a few ways they could have known you were there. The easiest and most likely is your credit card you used is tied to either Walmart.com or a partner that they share information with. Another common tracking method is through apps running in the background of smart phones. Many apps will actually track your location and sell that data to big companies, mainly when you are in their stores or close by (GeoFencing). I lean towards the app based tracking in this case as you were probably loged in to a google, Gmail, facebook on your phone and it then simply passed your email to Walmart. 

The way you discuss is difficult for a couple reasons, while facial recognition is out there, facial recognition that accounts for proper aging with any sort of high level proficiency isn't really in use commercially yet because of some technical issues still hindering it. My company is actually working with a company that does facial recognition using edge computing that can do some of this stuff, but as an industry as a whole it's not quite as advanced yet like you propose here. Amazon is probably closest to having this functionality in their new stores, but even they don't use facial recognition matching cross platforms.

The credit card wouldn't be applicable as we didn't buy anything (they didn't have it in stock).

But the second option is a possibility. My phone has a google account as I use Google maps (I don't have Gmail or Facebook on my phone). But I was under the impression that when I turned down the multiple requests from Google Maps to allow them to reveal my tracking information, that they would not do that.

As for the camera, it was in the back of the store in the main aisle, about 6' off the ground and had a video monitor to show what it was recording. There was also a sign that said "You are being recorded" (which, of course, you could really read until after you were already being recorded).