Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by tks2103 4388 days ago
It's pretty reasonable to expect a store would think of tracking a customer's path through the store. Websites do that all the time.

In addition, if we find a good way to provide information to the store owner about how his or her store is being browsed and used, it is likely that stores will provide better shopping experiences.
1 comments
tks2103 4388 days ago
Explain the downvote?
link
pjc50 4388 days ago
Not my downvote, but I suspect people don't like the slippery slope argument ("tracking is omnipresent on the web, therefore it's OK to do it in the real world as well").

Then there's "better shopping experiences" which most people's BS translators will read as "worse shopping experiences / persuading people to spend more than they intended".

link
tks2103 4387 days ago
Yeah that is one perspective for sure.

To be clear, I'm not arguing that it is justified or moral. Whatever you think about 'right' or 'wrong', you have to realize that a person who builds a store is going to want to know everything about how his or her store is used. EVERYTHING. That's not good or evil, that's just logical.

Acting like it should be self evident to a store owner that tracking users is inherently wrong is just ignoring the viewpoint of the store owner wholesale. Does not lead to good policy.

link
digitalengineer 4388 days ago
I'd say wifi tracking is less 'evil' than mood and gender facescanning software thats on in-store security-camera's these days.
link