Smile! You're On Camera: Data Collection in Food Retailing Markets

Abstract

We argue that new technologies that allow greater data collection in food retail markets allow companies to exploit consumers’ personal data, potentially giving rise to new anticompetitive strategies. We look at the example of Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology to show how the company replicates online surveillance into the real world. We pinpoint privacy and competitive concerns related to the technology and propose policy solutions to the issues raised. We show that exploitation of consumers’ data is not inherently to the viability of this technology in the market.