Retailing giant Wal-Mart are planning on using new advanced electronic ID tags so they can keep a track on individual pairs of jeans and underwear. It will be the start of a system that is hoped will have better controls on inventory, but some people are concerned about privacy.
In an article by Miguel Bustillo of The Wall Street Journal it is reported that the new removable tags will start being used next month which will allow individual garments to be read by a hand-held scanner. This will enable Wal-Mart staff to know which size of a range of jeans are out of stock, so helping to keep shelves correctly stocked and inventory closely checked.
If the trial proves successful the new smart tags will be rolled out on other products across the company’s 3750 US stores. The new tags have raised some privacy concerns in some quarters as they can be removed but not turned off, and they are trackable. They are concerned that some criminals or unscrupulous traders could scan consumers’ garbage and find out what has been recently purchased.
These theories have been dismissed by smart tag experts and Wal-Mart has insisted that suppliers only add the tags to packaging or removable labels to help with fears that they could be tracking consumer’s movements.
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yeah, just let this one slide too. We have already handed out everything else why not our privacy too. Theres talk to put it on our drivers licenses so police can easily look up our records for their convience. Like the smart tag its only to speed things along. Yeah right! Please people wake up. Its no tjust the extremests worried anymore.
for now.. its a removable tag.
Soon they will find an exuse for shop lifting and will be permentat. these chips
will be soon on every product and eventually our own bodies.
NEW world order has begun people
This is a very serious concern. The only way to prevent this tracking is to wrap your head in heavy duty tin foil, do not carry a wallet into Walmart, and always pay in cash.
welcome to New World Order …..I sigh to myself …..were screwed….,
I hear the Kellogg's is going to drop these trackers into every box of Raisin Bran. And then, if sanitation engineers find human excrement anywhere on the streets, of Everytown USA, they will be able to come to your door, grab you by the neck, and make you come and clean your mess up. So, don't poop in back alleys anymore. Do you understand?
its like like a electronic bomb, people… they aren't going to look you up and say… "HEY YOU BOUGHT A PAIR OF WRANGLERS AT YOUR LOCAL WALMART LAST WEEK…."
Simple solution for privacy, when the product is scanned at the register, REMOVE the electronic tag and leave it at Wal Mart. If you don't leave the store with the tag, you cannot be tracked by anyone.
If people would quit stealing everything. Wal-mart would not have to do this.
I think this is evading everyone's privacy and I don't think this should be permitted.