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Monitored Customers

02:43

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May 20, 2014

In the US, retailers are using digital analysis tools for market research. Several software companies and department stores are using cameras and mobile phone signals to track down their customers with centimeter precision.

The digital age makes total customer surveillance possible. Every smartphone can be identified and traced if WiFi is switched on. Cameras with facial recognition and thermal imaging detectors register what items customers stop at and where they look. The companies have no scruples when it comes to surveillance. They claim that customers are tracked anonymously. Nonetheless, data protection specialists are sounding the alarm: few if any stores inform customers that they're being monitored.

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