Spychips has just reported that senior executives from American Express, have ‘taken a broadside’ with the discovery of the banking giants plans for people tracking. American Express representatives attended a meeting with CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) in July 2011 to review the current situation. Since this meeting, American Express has committed to review its entire patent portfolio ensuring that, “…any people-tracking plans be accompanied by language requiring consumer notice and consent.”
A spokesperson for Spychips reported that American Express had filed a patent application entitled, “Method and System for Facilitating a Shopping Experience.” Spychips have described this patent as, “…a Minority Report style blueprint for monitoring consumers through RFID-enabled objects, like the American Express Blue Card.” Spychips also state the following in respect to the proposed patent:
According to the patent, RFID readers called “consumer trackers” would be placed in store shelving to pick up “consumer identification signals” emitted by RFID-embedded objects carried by shoppers. These would be used to identify people, track their movements, and observe their behavior.
The patent also suggested such people-tracking systems could “be located in a common area of a school, shopping center, bus station or other place of public accommodation.”
Further information on this important subject can be found at:
www.spychips.com/press-releases/american-express-tracking-patent.html
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