this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2025
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Why does a retail store need a license plate reader?
I think I saw somewhere that they put plates of repeat shoplifters in there for notification when they roll up. Surveillance state? Surveillance corporate states.
Fair enough but then they sell it too... Everything is going to be this way going forward. People need to start taking privacy more seriously.
Most of them will walk into these retial locations with wifi and BT on
Whoever came up with selling it (if it wasn't sold to them this way) probably got a huge promotion.
Correct that's called business development and that's who makes the most money within any corporate generally
Corpos always win
I saw the writing on the wall and just ordered a pair of infrared blocking prescription glasses, that should at least fuck up the facial recognition for a hot minute before it gets too good for even that.
I sort of need to keep my BT on for my glucose monitor and insulin pump 😔
that's a valid reason but vast majority keeps BT on just because it is on by default
Tracking MAC addresses at scale is very hard. It is easier to do faces.
Especially since cell phones randomize macs for privacy. Been doing that for years.
I don't think watches, earbuds and other Bluetooth devices do. Also typically the MAC is per SSID/device
The reason they are hard to track is that you would need to track thousands of devices and then somehow correlate all of it. They are really only useful if you are trying to target someone but even at that there are easier ways.
Hey, you may have not heard of it, but there’s this thing called computers that do this job without breaking a sweat, this engineering problem has already solved, holy cow you underestimate people‘s desire to do horrible stuff.
Lowe's does exactly that. My store even have nicknames for repeat offenders.
People are pretty obvious
Theft. A long time ago I worked asset protection at Walmart. A lot of times people would get caught only after they got away with it several times. We would find out from a greeter that someone ran out with something. We would check the video, get screenshot, send out alerts to the other Walmarts... The camera footage is pretty important for catching those repeat offenders. Eventually they would finally be recognized while in the store instead of after the fact because of the alerts. I could see AI being an extremely value resource from that perspective while also being extremely dystopic from every other perspective. Such as Madison Square Garden using it to deny entry to people the AI flagged because they're a lawyer in a case against the owner.
The problem is that they need to steal a ton before doing any kind of prosecution or arrest.
We need small consequences for small cases of shop lifting.
shoplifting from corporations doesn't cause real harm. don't swallow the boot
It objectively does though
These a publicly traded companies. You are welcome to pull up the financial reports.
wahhhhhhhh shareholders don't get their money that they didn't earn through productive work, how tragic. unless it hurts the employees whose labor was used to make the product, no real harm is being done
We need to mind our own fucking business is what we need to do.
capitalism.
Probably because they somehow correlate your purchases with your plate and then use that to track your shopping habits.
Once your on private property, like their parking lot, is it legal to hide your plates? I'm thinking yes. And I'm thinking some quick 3d prints and motors could make this work.
In many states such devices are illegal, so if you get caught with it on the road that's probably a hefty ticket and maybe an arrest because they will assume it was meant for use in a crime.
The crime of protecting your privacy.
Technically in public there is no presumption of privacy. What we need to do is end the third party loophole that allows the government to buy data on citizens without a warrant. And some additional legislation preventing companies from tracking anyone using any data without their permission.
I believe you are right
Because theft exists