This iconic scene in Minority Report where purchases are tied to biometrics is no longer science fiction, it is your impending future. In more and more stores, networked cameras tag your face, follow your path, and link this information to loyalty profiles and purchase histories. Retailers pitch this technology merely as loss prevention. In an […]
The post Major Retailers are Spying on You: How to Prevent it! first appeared on Hackers Arise.
This iconic scene in Minority Report where purchases are tied to biometrics is no longer science fiction, it is your impending future. In more and more stores, networked cameras tag your face, follow your path, and link this information to loyalty profiles and purchase histories. Retailers pitch this technology merely as loss prevention. In an era of rising surveillance this harvesting may seem relatively innocuous, but once these systems are in place every grocery run becomes a data point in a profit model.
Personalized web pricing has been a reality for the last decade. Businesses have been increasing prices based on demand, desperation, or iPhone model. Historically brick-and-mortar shops have been a reprieve from unethical profit maximizing, but as more stores replace paper tags with electronic shelf labels (ESL), in-store surveillance pricing becomes a very real possibility.
While retailers continue to frame facial recognition technologies as theft control or to “increase the customer experience”, the boundary of unethical price gouging and price discrimination was crossed long ago. The question is no longer ‘will they’ but ‘how’. Soon, biometric signals could link your physical presence to data about income, purchase history, medical prescriptions, and emotional state. With that linkage, ESLs can adjust in real time to what a system predicts you’re willing pay.
The data rarely stays in-house. Data brokers have long gorged themselves on data from your online activity. The next prize is biometric and in-store behavioral data. Retailers are happy to sell it to advertisers, insurers, hedge funds, and political shops, exposing you to surveillance pricing and finely targeted persuasion. The business of selling data is so good that it now accounts for 35% of Kroger’s net income.
You don’t have to accept this as normal. While there are many extreme methods to completely thwart facial recognition, like wearing a full silicone mask, we are going to focus on more inconspicuous tools you can easily integrate into your daily routine. Keep in mind these techniques won’t defeat advanced military or government systems; they’re meant to blunt retail data collection.
The majority of retail cameras rely on high-resolution visible light cameras. Modern facial recognition systems typically measures 68 landmarks on the face, but rely on 8 critical landmarks to structure the data.
This means more of these key landmarks you obscure, the less confident a consumer-grade match becomes. A baseball hat tilted low and big sunglasses may be enough to obscure 4-5 of these points. Adding a covid mask would cover all these points.
However, some retailers are incorporating infrared (IR) cameras to map facial features. UV blocking and polarized sunglasses don’t block IR light. This means eye landmarks and eye tracking can still be logged. To circumvent this technology you can integrate reflective materials and IR blocking lenses. Reflective materials bounce IR light back toward the camera, creating a glare that has been demonstrated to interrupt IR camera scanning. In systems that don’t have glare filtering IR cameras, a reflective hat alone may be enough to distort the camera image.
These hats can be purchased from Amazon, but if you need a hat with more breathability (and steez), I prefer this one made by Chrome.
The newest generation of IR cameras polarized filters to block the effect of reflective materials. To deal with these there are a number of IR blocking glasses you can purchase. Reflecticles is the OG company making privacy glasses. The ghost and phantom are their premium models that pair IR blocking lenses with reflective frames, but they also carry basic IR blocking glasses at a lower price point.
If you need prescription lenses Zenni Optical recently rolled out a IR blocking coating on their lenses that blocks 80% of the near-IR spectrum. The primary complaint online is that it breaks the iPhone’s IR based FaceID, which I suppose is a pretty good endorsement.
The reality is that stores are no longer just selling groceries, they are selling you. While these face obscuring techniques are essential, they need to be paired with comparatively boring, low tech techniques to be fully effective:
- Use cash whenever possible
- Use other people’s loyalty programs. The phone number (area code) 123-4567 seems to work at a lot of grocery stores.
- Request that your image be removed from PimEyes, FaceCheck ID, Whitepages, Spokeo.
Facial obscuration is the right move for people concerned about the future of corporate surveillance. However, technology is ever evolving and surveillance technology is no exception. In my next article we’ll go over the emerging science of gait identification and how to beat it.
The post Major Retailers are Spying on You: How to Prevent it! first appeared on Hackers Arise.
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