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In a letter Friday to Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said the plans — which involve using facial recognition tools in digital displays to target advertising to customers and collect information on them — potentially pave the way for biased pricing discrimination.

“Studies have shown that facial recognition technology is flawed and can lead to discrimination in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods,” Tlaib wrote in the letter, which was posted on social media Tuesday. “The racial biases of facial recognition technology are well documented and should not be extended into our grocery stores.”

Kroger is the largest grocery store chain in the country with nearly 3,000 stores and $3.1 billion in profits in 2023. Kroger and other retailers already use electronic shelving labels instead of paper labels to rapidly adjust prices based on a variety of factors, including time of purchase, where a grocery store is located and other data.

The plan to use facial recognition technology could allow the retailer to build individual profiles on customers, based on data like their gender and shopping habits.

In an August letter sent to McMullen about the same plans, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bob Casey (D-PA) said they were concerned about the chain building “personalized profiles of each customer, and then use those profiles ‘to determine how much price hiking each of us can tolerate,’ quickly updating and displaying the customer’s maximum willingness to pay on the digital price tag.”

The use of facial recognition tools in Kroger stores also raises concerns about how Kroger intends to “adequately” safeguard customer data, the Warren and Casey letter said.

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[-] whotookkarl@lemmy.world 26 points 17 hours ago

Surge pricing=price gouging, there is no difference

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[-] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world 38 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Kroger also owns Ralphs, Dillons, Smith’s, King Soopers, Fred Myer, Fry’s, QFC, City Market, Owen’s, Jay C, Pay Less, Baker’s, Gerbes, Harris Teeter, Pick‘n Save, Metro Market and Mariano’s.

[-] Coreidan@lemmy.world 17 points 18 hours ago

Thank fuck I haven’t heard of a single one of those stores and have never shopped in them

[-] ArtieShaw@fedia.io 4 points 17 hours ago

More of a hardcore Jewel/Osco shopper?

No - I think Mariano's and PicknSave would be competitors in that region. I travel a bit through the US, and I'm flummoxed. My Kroger discount card works more times than not, no matter where my work takes me and no matter which the local branding is.

Grew up in Chicago, you just reminded me of Dominick's

[-] littletoolshed@lemmy.world 0 points 17 hours ago

That’s not surprising, if you live outside of the US. Otherwise, I do have a follow up query for you 😅

[-] Coreidan@lemmy.world 4 points 17 hours ago

I’m in the us. Must be a west coast thing.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 points 15 hours ago

Kroger is big in the east, the others are bigger in the west IIRC. And OP missed Fred Meyer, which is big in the PNW.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 points 15 hours ago

Missed Fred Meyer, which is huge in the PNW.

I don't shop at any of those, mostly because it's not my closest grocery store. It is the biggest though, I just don't want to drive the extra 10 min to go there vs my local one w/ competitive prices.

[-] abigscaryhobo@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

Isn't there a whole big deal about Fred Meyer merging with them and some anti monopoly bs going on?

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[-] Assman@sh.itjust.works 5 points 16 hours ago

We switched from Kroger to a couple of international groceries. It's hit and miss quality wise, but this way I'm only supporting at most a handful of greedy shitbags.

[-] BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world 6 points 17 hours ago

And now Safeway!

But don't worry, there's still Walmart as an option.

[-] helenslunch@feddit.nl 2 points 13 hours ago

One of the great benefits of living in Texas is HEB.

[-] TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

As an aside, I personally don't understand why people would choose Kroger over Walmart

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[-] EndOfLine@lemm.ee 22 points 18 hours ago

Well, they wrote some letters. There's nothing more the nations law makers can do to protect citizens from corporate greed and price gouging. /s

[-] rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com 13 points 17 hours ago

What's the benefit to the customer here? Idk if a store where I live started doing this, I would just stop going there. I know that can be difficult with the grocery monopolies in a lot of places, but I would try my hardest.

I think facial recognition should be banned outright because it's highly inaccurate, racially biased, and used improperly by law enforcement. But in cases like this, even just a ban for all non-law enforcement applications would be really helpful. People don't benefit from this! Just corporations, and barely so.

In my work as a government contractor, I witnessed the use of facial recognition for access control (getting into certain parts of a building) in exactly 1 building (of several dozens) and it was so completely unnecessary that I was left wondering what kind of nepotism or budget surplus lead to the implementation of such a lame security tool.

[-] socphoenix@midwest.social 12 points 16 hours ago

The problem is everything is a massive chain so as one goes, so goes them all so to speak. I have Kroger, Albertsons, and Walmart as my only choices for grocery store. I don’t see any chance that if Kroger does this Albertsons (assuming the proposed Kroger Albertsons merger fails) and Walmart don’t do the same.

Tl;dr it doesn’t need to benefit the customer if the customer has no real choice in where they shop

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[-] dan@upvote.au 21 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

In the USA, facial recognition isn't legal in some states (e.g. the company needs written permission from the individual to collect their facial data in Illinois), and other stores have had issues with facial recognition (e.g. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/12/rite-aid-banned-using-ai-facial-recognition-after-ftc-says-retailer-deployed-technology-without) so I'm not sure how Kroger think they'll succeed with this.

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[-] helenslunch@feddit.nl 4 points 13 hours ago

So this is where they draw the line? Interesting choice...

[-] Zoboomafoo@slrpnk.net 11 points 18 hours ago

There's no way lawmakers stop this, so anyone know a way to wear a mask in public without looking like a lunatic?

[-] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 18 hours ago

I haven’t stopped wearing an N95 in public since 2020. I’m not going to say nobody has ever been weird to me about it, but the vast majority of people are more interested in my colorful hat than my mask. YMMV depending on location.

[-] Zerlyna@lemmy.world 8 points 17 hours ago

That’s a good idea. I don’t shop at Kroger but it’s only a matter of time for others to try this.

[-] uid0gid0@lemmy.world 5 points 14 hours ago

You could just become a fan of Insane Clown Posse

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this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2024
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