![]() The system may also be illegal in some states that have two-party consent laws, which outlaw recording audio of people without their consent. The criteria for evaluating employee recordings is unclear, as are several major details about the proposal, such as how long the recordings would be kept on file and whether outside parties could access them. The filing, however, mentions the possibility that a performance metric might be “based on the content of the conversation,” such as determining whether workers followed a “specific greeting” or “script.” The audio would help cut costs and improve the shopping experience, while also monitoring “if employees are performing their jobs efficiently and correctly,” according to the filing.ĭickens said the audio would be reviewed mostly by computers and that the program will not be “analyzing the words” it picks up. “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,” says the patent filing for the program, called “Listening to the Frontend.” For example, the sensors would pick up on how many items are scanned, how many bags are used, how long shoppers wait in line and how employees greet customers. “But we’ve also made clear the intent” of the technology, Dickens added.Īccording to the patent filed Tuesday, the sensors would be “distributed through at least a portion of a shopping facility” and collect data that will create a “performance metric” for Walmart workers. “We’ve made it perfectly clear in the patent that all sounds will be picked up, including voice,” Walmart’s director of corporate communications Ragan Dickens told CBS News. It’s unclear so far how that chatter could be used. Walmart’s patent filing says the “sound sensors” would focus on minute details of the shopping and checkout experience, such as the beeps of item scanners and the rustling of bags, and they could also pick up conversations of workers and customers. “If they do decide to implement this technology, the first thing we would want and expect is to know which privacy expectations are in place.” “This is a very bad idea,” Sam Lester, consumer privacy counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., told CBS News. The proposal raises questions about how recordings of conversations would be used and whether the practice would even be legal in some Walmart stores. ![]() ![]() A lot more.Īmerica’s largest retailer has patented surveillance technology that could essentially spy on cashiers and customers by collecting audio data in stores. Walmart wants to listen to its workers and shoppers more. ![]()
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