Walmart received a patent this week for technology that would allow them to hear every sound in the store. Walmart believes that "a need exists for ways to capture the sounds resulting from people in the shopping facility and determine performance of employees based on those sounds [1]." They want to "create a performance metric [1]" based on greeting customers, bags used per transaction, how fast the line moves, etc. The Washington Post has an article in reference to this patent that discusses other companies also tracking their employees using new types of technology [2]. Both Futurism [3] and The Verge [4] note that this technology isn't much different from Amazon Go stores. "Cashier-less stores like Amazon Go have been using similar systems to automatically charge shoppers for purchases without the need for checkout lines. [3]" Does Amazon Go record and analyze audio? I have only been able to find that they record video and infrared. Amazon Go shows that customers are willing to be visually recorded in direct exchange for convenience, but will customers be willing to be audio recorded for potential punitive reasons for employees. I understand that the recording could help employees sometimes to prove that they were not rude to a customer, but it seems that the technology is much more intended for demanding employee efficiency.
Personally, I don't think Amazon Go and the newly patented Walmart system are comparable due to the different things being recorded and the different purpose, but I am intrigued to see other people's opinions. Also, I am aware that the technology may never come to fruition, but the way the articles are trying to normalize the use of the technology bothers me.
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[1] - http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=10020004&IDKey=5052AD693B0F%0D%0A&HomeUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fpatft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect2%3DPTO1%2526Sect2%3DHITOFF%2526p%3D1%2526u%3D%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html%2526r%3D1%2526f%3DG%2526l%3D50%2526d%3DPALL%2526S1%3D10020004.PN.%2526OS%3DPN%2F10020004%2526RS%3DPN%2F10020004
[2] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/07/12/what-walmarts-patent-audio-surveillance-could-mean-its-workers/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0dc7dc618d42
[3] - https://futurism.com/the-byte/walmart-patents-system-listening-sound
[4] - https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/21/18151738/walmart-eavesdrop-patent-customer-employee-privacy
