Wal-mart lets corps. spy on customers - Broken Arrow, Ok.

[donsu]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-nws-spy09.html

P&G, Wal-Mart store did secret test of RFID

Shoppers in a suburban Tulsa, Okla., Wal-Mart were unwitting guinea pigs earlier this year in a secret study that two of America's largest corporations never expected you'd know about.

In the study, uncovered by the Chicago Sun-Times, shelves in a Wal-Mart in Broken Arrow, Okla., were equipped with hidden electronics to track the Max Factor Lipfinity lipstick containers stacked on them. The shelves and Webcam images were viewed 750 miles away by Procter & Gamble researchers in Cincinnati who could tell when lipsticks were removed from the shelves and could even watch consumers in action.

-snip-

Experts on RFID said the four-month study in Broken Arrow, Okla., was the first of its kind in the United States. Up to now, industry leaders have denied such testing had been conducted in this country.

The Sun-Times learned of the trial from a disgruntled Procter & Gamble executive and also from the firm that designed the "smart shelf" system. Researchers concealed "readers" in contact paper placed under the shelves and embedded RFID antenna chips in Lipfinity packaging.
-snip-
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the article ended by saying:

Tom Williams, spokesman for Wal-Mart, initially denied that the study had been done, only to call back the next day to say he found that indeed the test had been conducted from late March until mid-July.

[BuckeFushe]

1. Welcome to 1984

did you have any doubt?

[bobbieinok]

2. Will this story appear in the

Tulsa World or any OK paper?????

[MadHound]

3. Gee, I guess that I'm going to have to start carrying a big magnet

And running it over everything I intend to purchase.

By the by, the next big security upgrade to our currency is going to insert RFID tags in the money. Yipee!

[NewzJunkE]

4. Nowhere to hide..

'every breath you take, every move you make, I'll be watching you',
The Police (is there some irony here?)

[newyawker99]

6. Hi NewzJunkE!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[NewzJunkE]

7. Thanks ..

.. for the big welcome NewYawker99 .. I too am from the Empire State originaly. Have been Suthernized.

:hi:

[el_gato]

5. don't shop at walmart