Target Tests Acuity In-Store Bluetooth Tracking — And The Infrastructure Behind The "Surveillance Pricing" Epidemic
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Claims made
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Target is deploying Acuity Brands' Bluetooth tracking infrastructure to monitor physical customer movements.
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Employees recently documented new handbaskets equipped with Bluetooth transmitters, which communicate with tracking chips Acuity has installed in the ceiling lights of nearly half of Target's 1,800 retail locations.
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The system tracks a shopper's exact path without requiring an app download or explicit consent.
The system tracks a shopper's exact path without requiring an app download or explicit consent.
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The company claims the technology is for inventory or employee tracking.
While the company claims this technology is for inventory or employee tracking, the system builds granular spatial profiles of individual customers.
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The system builds granular spatial profiles of individual customers.
While the company claims this technology is for inventory or employee tracking, the system builds granular spatial profiles of individual customers.
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Retailers have increasingly weaponized this type of behavioral data.
Retailers have increasingly weaponized this type of behavioral data; a Minneapolis investigation revealed Target's own app inflated the price of a vacuum by $148 simply because the customer walked through the front doors.
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Retailers have increasingly weaponized this type of behavioral data; a Minneapolis investigation revealed Target's own app inflated the price of a vacuum by $148 simply because the customer walked through the front doors.
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The trajectory points toward the normalization of dynamic, predatory pricing in physical stores.
The trajectory points toward the normalization of dynamic, predatory pricing in physical stores.
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The Federal Trade Commission is currently investigating the surveillance pricing ecosystem.
The Federal Trade Commission is currently investigating the "surveillance pricing" ecosystem, where middlemen utilize physical tracking and consumer data to manipulate prices.
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As more stores install physical tracking nodes—like Acuity's ceiling chips—retailers will be able to implement surge pricing based on a customer's specific location, hesitation, and historical shopping habits.
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This transforms a trip to the store into a continuous, unconsented data-extraction event.
This transforms a trip to the store into a continuous, unconsented data-extraction event.
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Physical tracking empowers corporations to dynamically charge consumers the absolute maximum an algorithm predicts they will tolerate.
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