In a letter Friday to Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said the plans — which involve using facial recognition tools in digital displays to target advertising to customers and collect information on them — potentially pave the way for biased pricing discrimination.
“Studies have shown that facial recognition technology is flawed and can lead to discrimination in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods,” Tlaib wrote in the letter, which was posted on social media Tuesday. “The racial biases of facial recognition technology are well documented and should not be extended into our grocery stores.”
Kroger is the largest grocery store chain in the country with nearly 3,000 stores and $3.1 billion in profits in 2023. Kroger and other retailers already use electronic shelving labels instead of paper labels to rapidly adjust prices based on a variety of factors, including time of purchase, where a grocery store is located and other data.
The plan to use facial recognition technology could allow the retailer to build individual profiles on customers, based on data like their gender and shopping habits.
In an August letter sent to McMullen about the same plans, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bob Casey (D-PA) said they were concerned about the chain building “personalized profiles of each customer, and then use those profiles ‘to determine how much price hiking each of us can tolerate,’ quickly updating and displaying the customer’s maximum willingness to pay on the digital price tag.”
The use of facial recognition tools in Kroger stores also raises concerns about how Kroger intends to “adequately” safeguard customer data, the Warren and Casey letter said.
We need a large, well-organized movement to demand that the government add a right to privacy to the US Constitution.
This is a privacy intrusion that should be banned nationally.
The US government should already be breaking up Kroger for its monopolistic practices.
I suspect most of the C Suite is simply waiting for whatever they see as the peak of their share price to sell off everything and move on to their next parasitic host.
US government enables oligopolies, why would they stop now?
Kroger is one of the more expensive grocery stores in my area. Less reason to go now. Aldi is the way
…attracting criticism from lawmakers, who warn it could…
Oh my, if only there were someone with the resources and authority to do something about it.
This is appalling.
So nice to live in the Balkans where prices are still on paper, and in some stores you can still barter depending on the quantity you’re buying. 😄
A Kroger spokesperson said in a statement that the company’s business model is built on a “foundation of lowering prices to attract more customers.” “To be clear, Kroger does not and has never engaged in ‘surge pricing,’” the statement said. “Any test of electronic shelf tags is designed to lower prices for more customers where it matters most.”
I know these PR people get paid a lot to tell bald-faced lies, but I just don’t understand how they live with themselves.
Because they’re high-functioning sociopaths. About 1 in 100 people are, and they tend to gravitate into executive, sales, legal, marketing, “law” enforcement, and other careers where having little to no empathy or conscience is a distinct advantage.
And people who own shit prefer to hire them for this “talent”
I think they are absolutely, positively, going to breach their face database and everyone’s purchase history all over the Internet.
I’ve been watching for an event like this with popcorn ready.
I’ve got a good/bad/terrible feeling that they’re playing for keeps in the race to be the biggest consumer privacy headline public relations disaster.
Purchase histories are already traded online i thought
Mask mandates may not be in effect but I can wear one to the grocery store. This is stupid and I will not participate.
That might be ugly, but something like that…
“To be clear, Kroger does not and has never engaged in ‘surge pricing,’” the statement said. “Any test of electronic shelf tags is designed to lower prices for more customers where it matters most.”
Isn’t that the same thing? It doesn’t matter if you raise prices on demand or lower them, the outcome is the same - different pricing at different times.
“No, no, it’s totally different to lower prices when fixed income people are shopping and at all other times leave them the same, our lawyers were very certain of that.”
Yeah see it’s not surge pricing! We actually lower prices whentheresnobodyintheaisle so that the discounts are passed on to you! Also we list the lowered price in the ads and apps so when you come in you can be surprised by power of our tech! and the updated price
This is all a misunderstanding! The high price IS the regular price. We lower the prices at certain times to benefit our customers, who we love so very much. This is totally not surge pricing!
“Well, you see, ‘surge pricing’ means raising prices during the most high-traffic times. Here at Kroger, we pride ourselves in raising prices slightly before and after the peak times, and that’s technically not surge pricing! It’s just dynamic pricing with surge characteristics.”
“Alright you chucklefuckers. Here’s the new law. You are required to have paper tags, the only discount you can offer is paper coupons sent through the mail to everyone in an area, and you’re never allowed to alter your prices more than once per week.”
Alternative prices
“We are just figuring out though”
We need a law in the US banning the use of computer assistance for identifying humans. Hands down. It’s not accurate, and it only emboldens people controlling resources.
I donr think you underatand who rules the US…
This ia a featuee of the system, not a bug
Please inform us. Who rules the US in reality?
Corporations
Well then just reference a Corporatocracy. Don’t add some weird mystery about what you mean.
Corps are just orgs no matter what the court says.
They are owned by people and they are ran for the benefit of these people at expense of people who have to buy goods and services from them.
This arrangement is fundamentally an oligarchy, corporate layer is a maxipad for the plebs to cope.
The oligarchs who each own a large steak in critical enterprises for the economy, which permits them to dictate policy and extract value from the state via various transfers from the treasury via tax regimes, loans or other state aid.
Kinda weird for presumably an adult not to know this… but i guess we get politics we deserve after all
Common plebs can’t even ID their owners 🤡
Are we talking t-bone or ribeye?
I aint got no beef, I am a vegetarian!
Riiiight. Thank you for reminding me that I ALWAYS forget about those “five jew bankers”. Is it “four jew bankers”? How many Jewish people are in the mix here, and how mad should be about this?
you tell me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_Americans_by_net_worth
also bringing up jews when the ruling regime is being criticized is a bad faith tactic attempting to derail the discussion. keep it up, regime whores!
Daddy dindu nuffin, mate! Enjoy your amazing healthcare, housing and education
Riiiight. Saying what you’re saying is totally equivalent to bringing up the same old bullshit that’s been used for hundreds of years.
So Oprah is in control of the community college classes I take and the AA meetings I go to which radicalize me? So confused. Where should I be going to find out the REAL TRUTH?
damn boy, who hurt u?
Oh no, I accidentally smudged a little bit of paint over the facial recognition camera lens… Oops!
Going to be hard to do when it’s under a little black dome 45 feet up in the air. Also there’s dozens of them…
sounds like a sombrero situation
Oh no, I accidentally put paint in a super soaker and it squirted upwards on the camera! Silly me, I’m such a klutz!
Be careful to never shine a 20mW green laser into the lens of a camera!!
Go on…
Paint ball gun ftw
If companies can’t protect the information they collect now, (a large portion of it gathered without consent), how are they going to protect even more information; and where can I opt out?..smh
The opt out comes in the form of a can of spraypaint.
No it comes from taking your money somewhere else. Why would you continue shopping at a place that makes you feel the need to vandalize their property to feel safe?
What do you propose I do when every supermarket in the area is doing this?
Or when all the supermarkets in your area are owned by Kroger?
Begin eating the rich.
I think I’ll try vandalism before cannibalism actually thanks
Your loss!
Two options:
- wear something that prevents facial recognition (something like Reflectacles, for example)
- don’t shop at Kroger
I’m doing the latter, but I’m probably going to pick up some anti-facial recognition stuff as well, just to screw with the various other orgs that do this (gonna try going through the airport w/ them as well the next time I travel).
Third option: force the government to outlaw this bullshit
When was the last time peasants forced anything in the US?
Asking for a friend…
Kroger owns a number of stores, making it even harder to not shop there: https://www.scrapehero.com/store/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Kroger_Company_USA.png
I’ve thought about Reflectacles too, but I doubt the cameras use infrared in a store that’s already very well lit.
Great idea though, and I hope they work on countermeasures that work with visible light cameras too
This is how you end up with laws mandating paper cards with pricing information.
And it definitely won’t negatively affect people of color, at all, will it?
