Walmart secured a patent to eavesdrop on shoppers and employees
Listening to everything from rustling bags to register beeps
Walmart was granted a patent this week for a new listening system for its retail stores that, if ever deployed, may make some employees and shoppers uncomfortable. According to the filing and claims, it’s “an example system for capturing and analyzing sounds in a shopping facility.” In other words, it’s a kind of surveillance system.
For example, this proposed listening system would be able to detect the rustling of shopping bags and the beeps at a register. Walmart could use this tech as an anti-theft solution to find out if number of items in a transaction and number of bags used checks out. It sounds like a reasonable application of technology in a major retail store, right?
That’s where the intrigue stops and the anxiety begins. The system wouldn’t just be an anti-theft tool, but a way to also monitor employee interactions with customers and possibly monitor what customers are saying in real time about products. “Additionally, the sound sensors can capture audio of conversations between guests and an employee stationed at the terminal,” the patent reads. “The system can process the audio of the conversation to determine whether the employee stationed at the terminal is greeting guests.”
https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/21/18151738/walmart-eavesdrop-patent-customer-employee-privacy
= new reply since forum marked as read
A few years back I got hearing aids--had to save up a few years. anyway, when the audiologist was finished adjusting, etc. she put the container in a bag on the counter and was saying goodbye by the door. I picked up the bag and rolled over the top so the container would not drop out--I had the new hearing aids in). I heard this noise-- a rustling of the paper bag--and was a bit startled as I wondered what it was -I realized was was coming from my hands rolling down the paper bad. I was amazed!! I never knew or did not realize I could not --in the past- hear noises such as a rustling of the paper bag. simple pleasures are the best 
anyway--another surprise--I heard my blinkers as I exited the parking lot. 
Back to the oP-- Technology is good==when used for the good. More surveillance is not what we need
