[Am-info] Video System Tracks Customer Behavior

[Mike Stephen]

This is really no different than what Microsoft is doing.  Microsoft would have you think that they 
are looking after the consumer.  They are not.  The client of Microsoft has changed over the past 
20 years.  It used to be Microsoft's clients were consumers who bought a program of some kind 
(either an operating system, or software to run in that operating system).  Today Microsofts 
clients are ebusiness clients.  These are the advertisers and marketers of the nation.  They are 
the click ad clients.  These clients are where all of Microsoft's so called "improvements" have 
been focused.  They no longer care about convincing the end users to buy Microsoft products 
because they own the entire market.  The next level of market Microsoft wants to own is the 
retail "vig" market.  Microsoft wants a piece of the action from all transactions.  This is obvious 
when you consider what "passport" is attempting to do. What Microsoft will soon realise is that 
there are three huge competitors that will soon feel microsoft breathing down their necks.  I 
personally do not like these three any more than I like Microsoft.  These three are Visa, 
American Express, and Mastercard.  In my opinion these three are worse than Microsoft, but at 
least I can still do business with cash.  


On Tue, 15 Jan 2002 23:16:34 -0500, Paul Rickard wrote:

>========== On 2002.01.15 12:00 PM, Stuart J. Hysom typed: ============
>
>>No one I know gives the correct information on
>>those forms.  I put down Micky Mouse as my name,
>>and bogus info down in all the other fields,
>>handed it to the guy, and he gave me a card.  They
>>can use the info as aggregate data, but it is
>>(probably) not traceable to me as an individual.
>
>    In my area, the Food Lion stores that have those little crappy 
>keychain cards don't make you scan them - they got so many complaints 
>about it that the cashiers keep one on hand and scan it for you 
>automatically. The customer data coming from this area must be really 
>skewed, with a dozen or so 'customers' buying thousands of dollars in 
>groceries each week.
>
>
>
>======== Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign =======
>--------------------------------[ Http://www.msboycott.com ]-----------
>
>  "Microsoft is like this intellectual roach motel: big brains go in
>   and you don't see anything come out."
>       -Paul Saffo, Institute for the Future 
>
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>From the Desk of Mike Stephen