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Book Review of The Aisles Have Eyes: How Retailers Track Your Shopping, Strip Your Privacy, and Define Your Power

esjro avatar reviewed on + 903 more book reviews


This book was published by an academic press, and can be dry in places (though the author does seem to try to minimize that). However, the contents are very, very disturbing. The book gives a brief history of how marketers gather and use data about consumers, then goes on to describe how brick and mortar stores are trying to gather data about individual consumers as is now possible for online vendors. The discussions of what marketers have planned for facial recognition technology and wearable tech are super creepy.

In the end, it is quite depressing because action will be needed on a government level to stop this. Only a couple of states so far have acted to protect the privacy of their citizens. Ugh.