View original tweet on Twitter. Related Topics. Tesco Supermarkets Cyber-security. Published 21 March Published 16 January Each product code links to its own internet database entry, which can be retrieved by the scanner - so anyone with access to both can establish what and where that product is. The ultimate goal is to assign a unique number to every product on the planet, allowing for what the Auto-ID Centre describes as a "physically linked world".
In this world, everything will be tracked and identified. The main obstacle to this vision is financial - the centre is working to bring down the cost of the tags from 50 cents to five cents apiece, or less. The chip-pushers claim that RFID tagging is useful in a strictly supply-side context. Retailers throw away money by losing stock in the supply chain, or by not replacing stock fast enough on shelves - and where fresh food is involved, tracking products helps avoid waste.
To this end, some retailers have already tagged pallets and containers, so that the product makers and traders can track stock as it moves from factory to storeroom to shelf. So far, that's fascinating only if you care about the supply mechanics of retail. But if the ultimate idea is to tag every sold thing, items could be "seen" in your possession. And that's where privacy campaigners start to worry. Because then you could be telling anyone who has the right kind of scanning device - from burglars to the government - what you have bought, where from, how much it cost, and anything else that might be added to an item's database entry, such as who bought it.
In this scenario, individuals could be identified by what they wear. On top of which, retailers could monitor your behaviour in relation to their goods. Did you try on a garment? How long did you hold that product? Are you trying to steal? Now does that sound a bit like surveillance? Now would it worry you if this technology were already being used at several of your favourite stores?
Speaking to Smart Labels Analyst magazine in April this year, he said: "We are cooperating with this trial in every way we can - we would like to be a test bed for many more trials of this kind. At the Tesco Cambridge store, reports the magazine, a camera trained on the Gillette blade shelf, and triggered by the tags, captures a photo of each customer who removes a Mach3 pack. Another photo is taken at the checkout and security staff compare the two images to ensure they always have a pair.
A spokesman for Tesco confirmed that this set-up is in operation. He says: "Generally in retailing, razorblades are stolen more than other products, but that is not why we are doing the trial. We have plenty of security measures in place to stop things being stolen. He adds that there is plenty of in-store signage indicating the supermarket's use of CCTV cameras. Still, customers might not infer from this information that these cameras are being used to take a digital photo of them each time they lift a Gillette razorblade from the store's shelf - it only takes one to prompt the camera - and again when they present the pack at the checkout.
Tesco says that the photos are "temporarily stored", but does not specify for how long. However, Smart Labels Analyst magazine explains that this system enables the store to "blacklist certain shoppers and keep an eye on them". In his interview with the magazine, Alan Robinson recounts an occasion when his Cambridge store was able to show the police a photograph of a shoplifter in the act of removing two packets of razors from the shelf: "The police were completely flabbergasted, having never seen anything like it in their lives.
Read part II. The card up their sleeve. It sounds good - loyalty cards entitle us to freebies or cash simply for shopping at our local superstore. Of course, retailers get something in return: a heap of information about us we might prefer them not to know. That's before they get started on the new tags that track you and what you buy. Rachel Shabi investigates. Topics Life and style. This widens the appeal of Tesco, making its service particularly relevant to that customer's stage of life and interests.
So this is a fantastic point to engage with the customer and the retailer can make the engagement extremely relevant, supportive and focused through communicating baby-oriented information and special offers. These clubs are part of the one big picture as Tesco simultaneously analyses data derived through the Clubcard and a customer's engagement with Tesco personal finance products.
All this information enables Tesco to understand a customer's individual requirements and to respond to these with relevant offers. Spotlight: To what extent has the loyalty programme aided Tesco's growth i. Clive Humby: The Clubcard has been the technical tool to enable Tesco to build up a considerable insight into customer shopping behaviour.
This insight includes knowing when and where consumers shop, which tells us something about how an individual or a family lives, and this in turn helps in terms of determining a launch strategy for financial service products. Most of these products are sold through in-store promotions with Clubcard point offers. Meanwhile the Tesco brand is very strong and this image is reinforced because Tesco is perceived through Clubcard as being relevant, offering value for money and giving the impression of caring about customers.
The points gained through the Clubcard are a compelling part of the proposition. In addition, Clubcard data can also help the customer wishing to buy online from Tesco.
By giving a Clubcard number, items purchased on the customer's most recent visits to Tesco stores will be listed as a useful memory jogger. Spotlight: What are the most challenging aspects of running the Tesco programme?
Clive Humby: The answer has to be the sheer scale of the operation. When we started out we were breaking the mould as regards what computers could do with the sheer volume of data we had — and you are talking about tens of millions of transactions every week.
Even today, it is a huge challenge to make the data available quickly, usefully and at a price that's affordable, and to get great insights from this information. In the UK alone there are probably some 25 million Clubcard holders, which is equivalent to some 14 million homes.
Approximately 10 million of these cards are probably active. Clive Humby: That's easy. There are a substantial number of customers who joined the Clubcard scheme long before Tesco introduced Air Miles, which were previously offered by Sainsbury's.
We know the people we attracted to Tesco when we won Air Miles from Sainsbury's. We know whether people convert their money offers to Air Miles or whether they use them for cash, spend them on treating themselves to holidays or other offers.
We also know how involved customers are in the broader Tesco brand such as clubs and financial services. All of this added together gives us an excellent picture of general loyalty and loyalty to Tesco.
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