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Thursday, November 12, 2015

Walmart Tried, Gave Up On Using Facial Recognition Software To ID Shoplifters

If you’ve ever known a shoplifter, you’ve probably noticed that he or she has a tendency to hit up the same stores over and over until those victimized retailers either nab the shoplifter or do something to make theft more difficult. It would make seem to make sense then for Walmart to deploy a facial recognition program to identify known or suspected offenders. So why did the company recently give up on this sort of system?

In a story for Fortune.com, Walmart was the only major national retailer that would confirm the use of face-scanning technology.

The retailer acknowledged that some sort of automated recognition program — which would alert store personnel to the presence of a potential thief — had been tested at various Walmart stores around the country, but that the company pulled the plug on it earlier in the year.

A Walmart rep explains that the system simply wasn’t providing the return on investment needed to justify its use.

“We were looking for a concrete business rationale,” says the rep to Fortune.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It offends obama thugs

lmclain said...

It offends me, too.
It SHOULD offend everyone.
There are, however, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many people who only take a break from cheerleading to tell everyone else that they are so perfect that they never do anything wrong and don't mind ANY intrusion, ANY measure, ANYTHING that MIGHT catch a bad guy.
Photograph us, record us, watch us, control us.
Its all good, huh?
You dumbaces are going to be so sorry.
Think of the Orwellian world your grandkids will live in if you don't start saying "ENOUGH!!"
You think the "thought police" is some imaginative literary reference?
You think "Nazi checkpoints" are going to become LESS intrusive and LESS prevalent?
You think warrantless searches WON'T be used more and more?
You think the blanket, all pervasive listening and watching of ALL citizens WON'T get worse?
You think freedom will always be ours with no effort and no concern?
You would be wrong. On all counts.
And if the rest of us are lucky enough, we'll see you dangling, too.

Anonymous said...

Probably not that effective anyway, since they tend to look pretty similar.