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CONSCIOUS SPEND
ON TODAY'S REAL LIFE
BLACK MIRROR
EPISODE, TARGET IS
NOW TRACKING YOU
THROUGH THEIR
SHOPPING BASKETS.
target is now tracking YOU
even more while shopping
A Target employee filmed a small black device clipped to a store hand basket and posted the ID number printed on it. That number is registered to Acuity Brands, the company that makes Target's ceiling lights.
Source: TikTok, FCC ID 2ADCB-ATG2
ACUITY BRANDS
The device is a Bluetooth tracker that Acuity sells to retailers. Acuity's own announcement says the tags attach to shopping carts to track their movement, so store staff can understand customer behavior and monitor employee activity.
Source: Acuity Brands press release, March 2017
The tracker talks to the ceiling, because Target put Acuity lights with Bluetooth chips inside them into nearly half its 1,800 stores. Acuity says the system works without the shopper downloading an app or agreeing to anything.
Source: LEDs Magazine, TechCrunch, 2017
These tags broadcast to the ceiling, so nothing is pulled off your phone, and Target has not publicly commented on the baskets. The part worth worrying about is what Target has already written down about itself.
Target Privacy Policy
At Target, we want you to know how we collect, use, share, and protect information about you. By interacting with Target through our stores, websites, mobile application(s), products, services, or otherwise, you consent to the use of information that is collected or submitted as described in this privacy policy. We may change or add to this privacy policy, so we encourage you to review it periodically.
Target's privacy policy counts your location inside the store as information it collects, and says it may link that with your app activity, your website activity, the ads you get shown, and your email.
Source: Target Privacy Policy, target.com
That same policy lists cameras that read license plates at its stores, voiceprints kept as biometric data, data brokers it collects personal information from, and training AI models as one use of what it collects.
Source: Target Privacy Policy, target.com
Target's app has already changed prices based on where you are standing. Minneapolis station KARE 11 found ten items cost $262 more inside the store than in the parking lot. Target changed the app after that story ran.
Source: KARE 11, 2019
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