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31 Comments
- theone3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19Pfft. Data Mining isnt about individuals, its about finding unexpected trends in large amounts of data. Data mining can be described at the most basic level as brute force regression analysis. Any data sets with a high correlation are reported back to the miner. Data mining is not interested in 'you' at all, it's trying to find unexpected trends and exploit them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Mining - pwrstick, on 10/12/2007, -5/+17I'm sorry, I find your comment offensive due to lack of sensationalism ;-)
- phucku2, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Next Digg headline: Retail Execuitves Fly The Same Way Nuclear Warheads Do.
Digg: Have your news selected by the lowest common denominator. - xgravix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@pwrstick: very funny and relevant, not sure why you got modded down
digg's front page really is full of overly-sensationalized stuff. But then, humans are wired to perk up when they see those things. I guess it's not a surprise that these are the types of stories that we see here. - hammerattack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4You see it as an annoyance because you're astute enough to see it for what it is: coercion. But yes, it works, and it works because people less observant, resistant, or intelligent than you have their 'buying objections' easily circumvented by the retailers. It's almost sickening how many people buy a product not because it's of good quality or because it is a good bargain, but because they are compelled to do so by insecurity, desire, or association.
- 5blocksfree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3As do I - however, I've discovered that if you ask, you may not even be required to provide any information in order to get the card. That's how the local stores around here seem to work - everyone just assumes that if they give you a form you have to fill it out - but some stores only "encourage" you to do so. I use a card, but there is absolutely nothing that personally identifies me with the purchased items, since I pay cash at the register.
- cius, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yea, it sucks that this is just talking about data mining, I totally expected to find out that marketers were being equipped with dive knifes and classified next generation goggles that allow you to see in night vision, infrared, and electrostatic fields, then sent out into the field to gather intelligence with some practiced kidney punches and that badass "splits between the walls" move. You know, something that might make ole' Fisher proud. Bummer.
- jefree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Card Reward Programs for large companies are annoying. Just give me your best price please. Either you want to sell me a product or not. I do not use them except for small and specialty shops. Nothing worse than grocery shopping with price tags plastered everywhere and trying to figure out the real price. I suppose people with a reward card don't even bother looking at specific prices anymore and just buy whatever says reward savings. Companies can collect whatever sales data they want, but I dislike having to endure the: "Do you have your - put company name here - reward card?" in an accusing manner every time I go to the register like it's a requirement or something. And then when using a reward card they try telling you that you've "Saved $$". What a joke. A bit irritating it is.
- battybattybatt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Uh, if this articel means "by way of using a mag-swipe card for access to great deals - or some door in some high-security building", then I agree. Any store using a discount card knows EXACTly WHAT YOU BOUGHT AND WHEN. Data mining has nothing to do with it. The diamonds are already there for the picking.
BArnes & Noble knows exactly how many copies of 2600 I have bought - they just didnt track the cash paid for, though. WEGAF, A? - alecks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I heard Walmart is the worst (or best).... Apparently they geomap everything in the stores so they know if a pack of gum sells better on the right side of the register or left.
They also have the most realtime trackign system. If you buy a lolipop in a walmart in Alaska, within 15 min, that transaction would be in their data warehouse.
Becqause of this, they were able to see flag sales spike way up within minutes of 9/11 and placed orders with all the flag manufacturers around the country...
they made fortune on flags. - pipebender, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I hate those membership cards as it bloat up my wallet. And yet I am forced to carry them around just so I don't get 'penalized' for not having one.
- sclozza, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I'm sure this upselling thing works, otherwise they wouldn't be trying it on. However, I have always seen it as an annoyance, I'm sure many others do as well.
- jperdomo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is why I refuse to have a discount card at any retail store. I hate when they bug me for one at CVS. I will gladly pay an extra 15 cents for toilet paper to ensure that CVS doesn't have a database of every purchase I've ever made.
- DasAmigo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I promise you it's an individual thing as well. I work for such a company who has 2 major I mean MAJIOR like top 5 telcom companies in the world. We target individual people right down to people in a house. IE we may send your mom one cell phone offer and send yer dad somthing diffrent going off over 60 items recorded about you in our databases. And it works. With a our predictive modeling and biznez analytics we save one of these companies upwards of 400 million a year by cutting way down on their marketing and boosting their targeted advertising. We know your race, ethnicity, culture, local crime rate and more. We can tell almost exactly when you'll stop using our service and why, and we'll try to pre-empt that with an intising offer to get you to stay. I'd give you examples but I dont want to get my company involved cause I still got a few months left on the contract. But beleive me it happens. What the NSA did was 100% legit and not nearly as invasive as most companies I've worked for.
- Xopl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Private sector data mining technology has been purchased and is being used by the government.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Information_Awareness
And: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/noplacetohide/
I'll leave you to use these resources to form your own educated opinion. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Correct. Walmart has over 440 terabytes of data on its consumers. Everything from what you purchased, to where it was in hte store, to what it was next to, to your credit info, if you have any loans on your house, social security, etc. etc. etc.
They use this data to even predict what you will buy like when the storms were hittin' florida the other year, they ran algorithms and saw people bought beer and strawberry poptarts during those times and sent truckloads down. - Pie_Man, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yes. And afterwords they require you to apply for a frequent shopper card.
- battybattybatt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Mob mentality theory would suggest otherwise.
As is suggested here, most stores will not force you to fill out the form, they WILL just give you the card. In those cases, usually only a zip code or a phone number is ReQUIRED to activate the card, which sometimes can cost money! In those cases a form DOES need to be filled, BUT no one will ask you for identification to oPROVE you are Nick Danger, Third Eye Investigations. (really, come on all you paranoids, just pick a ***** random number if it bothers you so much!) - bobster4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is most certainly about individual privacy.
As a former executive at a computer vision company that moved into video data mining, I'm afraid that massive intrusions into personal privacy are going to have to occur before something happens to, at least, regulate the industry.
It sounds good to say that retailers are only looking at trends, but who is holding them to account?
What they want is for you to walk down aisle 4 and for there to be a digital sign there that is caters to YOU, specifically. Enticing YOU to buy...
On the macro-level, that may mean you are delivered an ad for a bra vs one for car parts (gender recognition) or maybe you get an ad for Ebony magazine vs Ski magazine (racial identification).
The problem is that this is a slippery slope.
Yes, they do traffic pattern mapping using computer vision technology that can't identify you personally (until you check out using your credit card), but it is facial recognition that they are using to determine these demographic characteristics (at least it was 2 years ago).
Given the fact that they are already mining facial recognition data for demographics and point-of-purchase (POP) advertising, what makes you think that major retailers aren't, at least, considering the creation of a massive biometric database of all their customers?
Opting in by signing up for a loyalty card in one thing, but this is something else entirely. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"Retailers Gather Data the Same Way Spies Do"
They do full body cavity searches too???? - battybattybatt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1And Yoda, are you supposed to be?
- FrugalFreak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The real danger from this is class powerism, giving those who spend more, thus that have more, having more seniority which is wrong. Rankism is a unjust behavior. info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankism I see a further divide growing between the have's and have nots and resentment is growing.
- popabawa, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1The article isn't totally bogus but as usual it's over-sensationalised by a lazy journalist.
Loyalty card data is used is 2 ways;
1) In the short-term it is used for targetted promotions. This will usually because suppliers wish to target a certain audience, e.g. Coca-Cola might want to target Pepsi drinkers with a coupon to persuade them to switch.
2) Longer term a *sample* of the data is archived to look at larger trends. It's too expensive to even archive all the data (millions and millions of transactions), never mind analyse it!
Individual data is not deeply analysed as the article (partially at least) suggests, it's too expensive and customers are not rational at an individual level so it's pointless. Groups do act rationally though so that's where the value is. - PiGuy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Put a check in the "No Duh" column.
- thiswayup, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0You mean they get old agents out of retirement, capture global arms dealers, steal a bio weapon, get caught, escape, get stabbed in the back by someone then rescue the girl? man...i knw MI3 was a rip off.............
- noGoodNamesLeft, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0You forgot another way of getting information that glamorous international spies and supermarkets both use; sleeping with the enemy.
That's right; my local ASDA supermarket has an undercover agent trying to determine my preference in cola via pillow talk. She's pretty cute, and not bad in bed, though her oral sex still needs a bit of work; if she doesn't improve in that area, I'm dumping her in favour of the girl from Tesco's.
Strange thing is I don't like cola anyway. - cyberpope, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Yes we learned about this in business class. Very secret stuff.
- xbasilx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Business is terrorism.
- taotehue, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1@phucku2
You obviously have never worked in any job that mines the data. anyone who is in Corporate America could tell you this simple fact. Another simple fact, there are a lot of idiot managers.
BTW, don't the jet airliners and IBMs use the same kind of fuel to travel? I guess that would mean corporate execs do travel the same way as nukes, wow, what a epiphany. - kokobaroko, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3soo if what you are saing is true then WHY retailers do insist on gathering specific personal information?
- Dabellah, on 10/12/2007, -9/+7Agreed. Reported as innacurate as this is just downright paranoid.
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