Tesco have installed cameras in their Cambridge store to take you picture every time you take a packet of Gillette razor blades from the rack, and again when you go to the checkout.
"Still, customers might not infer from this information that these cameras are being used to take a digital photo of them each time they lift a Gillette razorblade from the store's shelf - it only takes one to prompt the camera - and again when they present the pack at the checkout. Tesco says that the photos are "temporarily stored", but does not specify for how long. However, Smart Labels Analyst magazine explains that this system enables the store to "blacklist certain shoppers and keep an eye on them". In his interview with the magazine, Alan Robinson recounts an occasion when his Cambridge store was able to show the police a photograph of a shoplifter in the act of removing two packets of razors from the shelf: "The police were completely flabbergasted, having never seen anything like it in their lives."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,999866,00.html
Next time you are in you could....
a) take packets from the shelf at least 50-60 times (fill up the digital camera with crap)
b) Do a bit of a Bob Dylan spoof and take some pre written placards to hold up to the camera whilst repeatedly taking packets from the rack. (or just stick them the 'V' sign)
c) take packets from the shelf then ask for all information being held on you under he requirements of the data protection act.
see: http://www.mtcp.co.uk/campaigns.php?id=5
Passing through Cambridge and feeling bored, heres the store:
CAMBRIDGE N/MARKET RD
CHEDDARS LANE
NEWMARKET ROAD
CAMBRIDGE
CAMBRIDGESHIRE
CB5 8HE
http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&db=pc&addr1=&client=public&addr2=&advanced=&addr3=&pc=CB58HE&quicksearch=CB5+8HE
Hey Ho!
"Still, customers might not infer from this information that these cameras are being used to take a digital photo of them each time they lift a Gillette razorblade from the store's shelf - it only takes one to prompt the camera - and again when they present the pack at the checkout. Tesco says that the photos are "temporarily stored", but does not specify for how long. However, Smart Labels Analyst magazine explains that this system enables the store to "blacklist certain shoppers and keep an eye on them". In his interview with the magazine, Alan Robinson recounts an occasion when his Cambridge store was able to show the police a photograph of a shoplifter in the act of removing two packets of razors from the shelf: "The police were completely flabbergasted, having never seen anything like it in their lives."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,999866,00.html Next time you are in you could....
a) take packets from the shelf at least 50-60 times (fill up the digital camera with crap)
b) Do a bit of a Bob Dylan spoof and take some pre written placards to hold up to the camera whilst repeatedly taking packets from the rack. (or just stick them the 'V' sign)
c) take packets from the shelf then ask for all information being held on you under he requirements of the data protection act.
see:
http://www.mtcp.co.uk/campaigns.php?id=5 Passing through Cambridge and feeling bored, heres the store:
CAMBRIDGE N/MARKET RD
CHEDDARS LANE
NEWMARKET ROAD
CAMBRIDGE
CAMBRIDGESHIRE
CB5 8HE
http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&db=pc&addr1=&client=public&addr2=&advanced=&addr3=&pc=CB58HE&quicksearch=CB5+8HE Hey Ho!
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
Sounds like fun
20.07.2003 08:36
JW
plans
21.07.2003 21:10
Dan
e-mail:
dan.e.boy@hipplanet.com
Oh please ! Has everyone forgotten.......
22.07.2003 03:10
It was explained that he (self-employed) was selected for "the treatment" because he had been buying too many bottles of champagne. Turned out he was getting them for his grandmother, who always paid him back.
The investigation lasted six months. I seem to remember it froze his bank accounts, and drove him bankrupt. Though he was finally cleared of any wrongdoing, too late.
The IR people charmingly explained that they had direct computer links to all the major supermarkets, and could pull off anyone's details they wanted. But at that time, they could not get the identity from any credit card use. It only worked if people had STORE CARDS.
May have closed that loop by now, of course.
The mistake was explained on the basis that "the computer algorithm was still too simple". They were developing much more sophisticated techniques to trawl through and automatically detect anyone with "anomalous spending patterns" so that candidates for investigation would be thrown up with no human intervention at all.
God knows how far they've got by now.
Please don't imagine I'm making this up. I was as gobsmacked as you.
Anyone else see it ? Might have been late night Open University. Long time ago.
joseph p.
Tesco Protest
08.09.2003 13:42
Notags.co.uk will celebrate Radio Frequency Identification’s (RFID) ‘Big Moment in History’ with a demonstration outside a Tesco store in Sandhurst, Berkshire.
On Monday 15th September, the Auto-ID Centre is unveiling the first platform of the Electronic Product Control (EPC) network at a hotel in Chicago. Referred to by the Centre as RFID’s ‘Big Moment in History’ this network will allow computers to automatically track any man-made object that has an RFID tag inserted into it from the production line to the shelf and beyond.
The Tesco Extra store in Sandhurst is trialling RFID technology in DVD packaging.
The demonstration will take place 5.30 pm onwards on Monday 15th September at the Tesco Extra supermarket, The Meadows, Marshall Rd, Sandhurst, Surrey
Notags is a consumer group dedicated to stopping the pervasive use of RFID technology.
Chris McDermott
e-mail:
info@notags.co.uk
Homepage:
http://notags.co.uk