Mask mandates may not be in effect but I can wear one to the grocery store. This is stupid and I will not participate.
this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2024
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I think they are absolutely, positively, going to breach their face database and everyone's purchase history all over the Internet.
I've been watching for an event like this with popcorn ready.
I've got a good/bad/terrible feeling that they're playing for keeps in the race to be the biggest consumer privacy headline public relations disaster.
So this is where they draw the line? Interesting choice...
This is how you end up with laws mandating paper cards with pricing information.
Oh no, I accidentally smudged a little bit of paint over the facial recognition camera lens... Oops!
Going to be hard to do when it's under a little black dome 45 feet up in the air. Also there's dozens of them...
sounds like a sombrero situation
Oh no, I accidentally put paint in a super soaker and it squirted upwards on the camera! Silly me, I'm such a klutz!
Be careful to never shine a 20mW green laser into the lens of a camera!!
Paint ball gun ftw
And it definitely won't negatively affect people of color, at all, will it?
If companies can't protect the information they collect now, (a large portion of it gathered without consent), how are they going to protect even more information; and where can I opt out?....smh
The opt out comes in the form of a can of spraypaint.
No it comes from taking your money somewhere else. Why would you continue shopping at a place that makes you feel the need to vandalize their property to feel safe?
What do you propose I do when every supermarket in the area is doing this?
Or when all the supermarkets in your area are owned by Kroger?
Begin eating the rich.
I think I'll try vandalism before cannibalism actually thanks
Your loss!
Two options:
- wear something that prevents facial recognition (something like Reflectacles, for example)
- don't shop at Kroger
I'm doing the latter, but I'm probably going to pick up some anti-facial recognition stuff as well, just to screw with the various other orgs that do this (gonna try going through the airport w/ them as well the next time I travel).
I've thought about Reflectacles too, but I doubt the cameras use infrared in a store that's already very well lit.
Great idea though, and I hope they work on countermeasures that work with visible light cameras too
Third option: force the government to outlaw this bullshit
Kroger owns a number of stores, making it even harder to not shop there: https://www.scrapehero.com/store/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Kroger_Company_USA.png
We need a law in the US banning the use of computer assistance for identifying humans. Hands down. It's not accurate, and it only emboldens people controlling resources.
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“To be clear, Kroger does not and has never engaged in ‘surge pricing,’” the statement said. “Any test of electronic shelf tags is designed to lower prices for more customers where it matters most.”
Isn't that the same thing? It doesn't matter if you raise prices on demand or lower them, the outcome is the same - different pricing at different times.
"Well, you see, 'surge pricing' means raising prices during the most high-traffic times. Here at Kroger, we pride ourselves in raising prices slightly before and after the peak times, and that's technically not surge pricing! It's just dynamic pricing with surge characteristics."
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This is all a misunderstanding! The high price IS the regular price. We lower the prices at certain times to benefit our customers, who we love so very much. This is totally not surge pricing!
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Surge pricing=price gouging, there is no difference
Kroger also owns Ralphs, Dillons, Smith’s, King Soopers, Fred Myer, Fry’s, QFC, City Market, Owen’s, Jay C, Pay Less, Baker’s, Gerbes, Harris Teeter, Pick‘n Save, Metro Market and Mariano’s.
Missed Fred Meyer, which is huge in the PNW.
I don't shop at any of those, mostly because it's not my closest grocery store. It is the biggest though, I just don't want to drive the extra 10 min to go there vs my local one w/ competitive prices.
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Thank fuck I haven’t heard of a single one of those stores and have never shopped in them
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We switched from Kroger to a couple of international groceries. It's hit and miss quality wise, but this way I'm only supporting at most a handful of greedy shitbags.
And now Safeway!
But don't worry, there's still Walmart as an option.
One of the great benefits of living in Texas is HEB.
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What's the benefit to the customer here? Idk if a store where I live started doing this, I would just stop going there. I know that can be difficult with the grocery monopolies in a lot of places, but I would try my hardest.
I think facial recognition should be banned outright because it's highly inaccurate, racially biased, and used improperly by law enforcement. But in cases like this, even just a ban for all non-law enforcement applications would be really helpful. People don't benefit from this! Just corporations, and barely so.
In my work as a government contractor, I witnessed the use of facial recognition for access control (getting into certain parts of a building) in exactly 1 building (of several dozens) and it was so completely unnecessary that I was left wondering what kind of nepotism or budget surplus lead to the implementation of such a lame security tool.
What's the benefit to the customer here?
There's no intended benefit to the customer.
Yes, it was a rhetorical question. Thanks for your input.
The problem is everything is a massive chain so as one goes, so goes them all so to speak. I have Kroger, Albertsons, and Walmart as my only choices for grocery store. I don’t see any chance that if Kroger does this Albertsons (assuming the proposed Kroger Albertsons merger fails) and Walmart don’t do the same.
Tl;dr it doesn’t need to benefit the customer if the customer has no real choice in where they shop
Well, they wrote some letters. There's nothing more the nations law makers can do to protect citizens from corporate greed and price gouging. /s
In the USA, facial recognition isn't legal in some states (e.g. the company needs written permission from the individual to collect their facial data in Illinois), and other stores have had issues with facial recognition (e.g. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/12/rite-aid-banned-using-ai-facial-recognition-after-ftc-says-retailer-deployed-technology-without) so I'm not sure how Kroger think they'll succeed with this.
Honestly, they'll probably miss that and pay massive fines in Illinois. It seems to be the traditional approach by companies that get into facial recognition to also not bother to listen to anyone who could have told them not to.
There's no way lawmakers stop this, so anyone know a way to wear a mask in public without looking like a lunatic?
I haven’t stopped wearing an N95 in public since 2020. I’m not going to say nobody has ever been weird to me about it, but the vast majority of people are more interested in my colorful hat than my mask. YMMV depending on location.
That’s a good idea. I don’t shop at Kroger but it’s only a matter of time for others to try this.
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