[patrickg]

Not many comments about privacy. This is how I see it: You are identified when you enter the shop and amazon knows exactly the products you buy.

If you have the choice to buy or not to buy at the shop, that's fine, it is your decision. But let's imagine that in the not so far future, all shops in your neighborhood are like this. No way to go shopping whithout given exact trace of you, your location, the stuff you buy, the time you buy, the amount of food etc.

We all know that too much data is not good for us (yes, I am looking at you, my government).

While I like the idea of not standing in a line and wait, I really wish that these shops offer a prepaid anonymous card for those who don't want to be totally tracked.

[wallacoloo]

There are a lot of social issues that a system like this might entail, in addition to privacy:

1. Not everyone has a smartphone.

2. Not everyone has an electronic account with which to pay (or for practical reasons, they can't use it frequently).

And the people that fall into those categories aren't just fringe. Parents give dollar bills to their kids & send them to the store to fetch food. People without established credit might have to use cash for purchases, etc.

[chipperyman573]

Can't people with no credit open a checking account and get a debit card? I was never askef for a credit score when opening one of those.

[wallacoloo]

Probably - I don't know the procedure. I do know most people consider debit to be a less secure (for the consumer) form of payment than credit or cash though.

[spuz]

I think the privacy implications for a shopper at Amazon Go are the same as a shopper who shops at Tesco with a credit card. The company can use your credit card to track exactly what you buy already and many people seem to be happy with that (even going so far as to sign up for loyalty cards).

[patrickg]

But it should be possible to a) use a prepaid credit card or b) pay with good old cash. That way it is still possible to buy without getting tracked (while all the others that don't care use the loyalty card).

[spuz]

I agree it should be possible but unfortunately the technology doesn't allow it. In this case I would give the analogy of online vs offline shopping. Ideally we would be able to buy goods on amazon.com with cash (or perhaps bitcoin) but the technology doesn't make this feasible.

[mirceal]

don't know about tesco, but I know about Costco. You need to provide your membership card every time you buy. So Costco definitely knows your complete shopping history.

Also any online shop (Amazon included) has a complete history of everything you've ever bought.

For brick&mortar shops you would be a fool to assume they don't mine your shopping history based on your credit card (or some sort of hash that's computed from your CC#).

[pbiggar]

Think of the opportunity: someone can build a "privacy" store where you can buy anything without being traced.

[miend]

I can imagine this being made illegal when mass physical shop tracking becomes the norm (more than it already is).