In an interview with CSM Passcode contributor Evan Selinger, author and professor Joseph Turow discusses his new book on consumer surveillance, "The Aisles Have Eyes: How Retailers Track Your Shopping, Strip Your Privacy, and Define Your Power." Consumer tracking is considerably more sophisticated than shoppers think, surpassing just targeted ads, and encompasses tools such as GPS, cross-device tracking and facial recognition, Turow said. Retailers use this information to forecast potential purchases, the amount shoppers are willing to spend on items or services, and more, eventually using the data to incentivize consumers. These tactics establish data-bolstered user profiles that shoppers are unaware of and that impact the deals and prices they receive. This "raises profound social questions," he said. "Do we want a society that has markets that pick winners and losers based on criteria people don’t know about and that they might not agree with?"
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