Re: [projectvrm] Being watched by smart lights in stores, vs. intelligent personal assistants & intentcasting

[Doc Searls < >]

Thanks, Dan. Great response, and with much helpful detail. Now let me de-fork the thread by adding John’s post and Guy’s dialog (thus far) as well. (It’s all below.)

Here’s the thing: retailers aren’t going to do what we want here. They also can’t.

The only way any one of us can get scale is with tools that are ours: tools that make clear to the retailers of the world that those tools are good for them as well as us. That’s why I brought up intelligent assistants and intentcasting apps, and terms that we can assert that sellers will accept because those terms will clearly be good for them too.

Bringing those to market and getting them adopted is the challenge here. Until we do, the one-sided thinking and abuses will continue. 

Doc

On Jun 15, 2016, at 2:35 PM, John Wunderlich < " class=""> > wrote:

😃 That's kind of my point

John Wunderlich,

Sent frum a mobile device,
Pleez 4give speling erurz

"...a world of near-total surveillance and endless record-keeping is likely to be one with less liberty, less experimentation, and certainly far less joy..." A. Michael Froomkin

_____________________________
From: Guy Higgins < " x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="link" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0" class=""> >
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2016 12:36 PM
Subject: Re: [projectvrm] Being watched by smart lights in stores, vs. intelligent personal assistants & intentcasting
To: Doc Searls < " x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="link" x-apple-data-detectors-result="1" class=""> >, John Wunderlich < " x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="link" x-apple-data-detectors-result="2" class=""> >, ProjectVRM list < " x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="link" x-apple-data-detectors-result="3" class=""> >

John,

While I do believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, I don’t believe that any store would ever do that.  It would absolutely freak out their customers.  Ignorance is bliss.

Guy

From: John Wunderlich < " class=""> >
Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2016 at 10:04 
To: Doc Searls < " class=""> >, ProjectVRM list < " class=""> >
Subject: Re: [projectvrm] Being watched by smart lights in stores, vs. intelligent personal assistants & intentcasting

Would be interesting if the receipt you gotfrom  the store included the data ceom a consent receipt:

While you were in out store we collected the following information about you, and used it to ... and will share it with ....

On Jun 15, 2016, at 11:42 AM, Dan Miller < " class=""> > wrote:

Hi Doc:

Sorry that I don't have time to reply line-by-line. As usually, you are making great observations and asking the right questions. Retailers have elaborate plans and technology for identifying retail hotspots and tracking store traffic for the purpose of merchandising, etc. At Opus Research, we've done a couplildit of projects for lighting companies who seek to differentiate themselves according to their approach to supporting tracking and data communications in general. I'll never look at the inside of a store the same again.

As for the VRM, privacy and personal data protection side of the equation, CVS, Walgreens and a couple of the grocery chains have demo'd their approach to marrying their mobile apps, loyalty programs and what I'll call customer utilities. They let you store your shopping lists (tho they could build it themselves based on your purchasing history etc). Then they can identify where items are on the shelves of their stores and map the most efficient path for you to take to get in and out quickly. But that all seems sort of pale compared to what GameStop (a specialty retailer with avid "fans" who skew younger) has in mind for beacons and intelligent assistance.

Rather than keying off "intentcasting" it keys off the company's loyalty program (natch). What it defines as a "beacon" really is like a lighthouse. It is a combination of locator, digital sign and kiosk. If you have your mobile app set correctly, it greets you personally as you enter the store and can say or text "Hi ........., I see you rented Mortal Kombat XX, are you ready for XI?" or it can make other highly personalized suggestions.

In addition to the greeter beacon, there are beacons around shelves that can provide suggestions or respond to questions about specific products or software. Seems sort of cool and responsive, especially for gamers.

They were designing the system before the refresh of store lighting technology was underway so I'm not sure this is totally germane to your lighting discussion. WiFi, NFC and BLE devices (like iBeacon) prevail. But I think it dramatizes the tension between VRM or user-controlled intelligent assistance and Loyalty Programs. Can sophisticated or unsophisticated customers game the infrastructure that supports loyalty in order to gain better leverage vis a vis retailers and brands?

Intent versus Retention, that is the question.

On Wed, Jun 15, 2016 at 8:01 AM, Doc Searls < " target="_blank" class=""> > wrote:

New item from MediaPost: Smart Lights In Stores Can Pinpoint Shoppers to Within 8 Inches For Messaging, by Chuck Martin.

Here’s the text, with my responses:

Indoor beaconing is going wall to wall.

Or more accurately, it’s going from ceiling to floor, as store lighting joins the Internet of Things.

The ultimate effect is that the location of in-store shoppers can be very precisely identified and retailers or marketers can then deliver highly targeted, location-based offers, on the spot.

Do any shoppers want this? By what evidence? That they already have a CVS or Walmart app? Presumably.

I find myself thinking, given Apple’s moves on the privacy front, that Customer Commons should propose filtration of apps in app stores by customer terms. As in “only show me apps compliant with my terms (or preferences)."

GPS has been pretty good at identifying general location and when combined with Wi-Fi and beacons, the combo can paint a pretty good picture of proximity of a person.

GPS + Wi-Fi has proven good for providing graces such as better navigation in mapping apps, but in the second clause in that sentence I see a slippery slope from a handy feature to unwanted personalization.

But now other location technology, along with beacons, is being built into light bulbs.

This is yet further evidence that beacons as battery-operated, standalone devices may have seen their day, as I wrote about recently (Beacons, GPS, Wi-Fi Combo: The New Mobile Presence).

When installed at retailers, these smart lights can locate a shopper at a precision of 8 to 12 inches and then promotions and other messages can be triggered based on the location.

Let’s look at affordances here. The single affordance we want from a light is illumination. That’s it.

We do expect stores to have cameras or one-way mirrors that allow security people to spot shoplifting. The affordances of those are self-evident and separate from those of lighting.

And hey, maybe we also don’t mind “smart” lights that also have cameras for security work. Those exist too.

But we don’t want lights to identify us personally and send us messages. Not yet, anyway, and not until we have some kind of genuine opt-in relationship with the store. More about that below.

I just spent some time speaking with two of the executives in charge of implementing the connected lights strategy to see how this approach will be used for targeted marketing and advertising.

“This is about proximity vs. positioning,” said Gerben van der Lugt, global business development lead for indoor positioning at Philips Lighting, a company that’s been in the lighting business since 1891.

Yesterday I threw out a bunch of Philips bulbs I hadn’t yet used, because others just like them fell apart after they died, right in their sockets. When I tried to unscrew their glass-and-shit-metal corpses, the bulbs fell out in my hand while the screw bases stayed stuck inside the sockets. I had to make sure the electricity was off while I worked each bulb base out of each socket, using a needle-nosed pliers, like a dentist extracting a rotted tootht. If I were a retailer having the same experience, Philips’ brand value for me would sink toward Zika's.

Instead of sending a signal to a smartphone, like beacons, the LED lights in a store connect with a phone screen as soon as it is opened.

So let’s say you enter a CVS store equipped with these things, and you open your CVS app just so you can find which aisle has, say, the nasal spray. Is the first thing you want to see instead is a promotional message that says “Hey! Deal on batteries, right there by your right knee!”

(Credit where due: the CVS app is actually okay at helping manage prescriptions. Could be better, but it’s actually useful, to some degree.)

Each light fixture has a unique identification code using what Philips calls visible light communication.

A smartphone camera detects the code in the light and identifies its precise location. And that’s where marketing messages come in.

“Every fixture has a unique ID and a small variation in the intensity of light,” said van der Lugt. “The camera of the phone can see the modulation, although people can’t.”

I don’t mind not seeing the modulation, but I do mind being spied on without permission.

As with beacons, the shopper has to have a relevant app, such as the retailer’s where they are shopping.

That’s good. It would also help if they were made aware that systems like this are in place, and opt-in, rather than opt-out.

Carrefore installed the Philips location-based lighting system in its hypermarket in France using 800 lighting fixtures.

Wonder how well that system agrees with the spirit as well as the letter of French and EU privacy laws.

“The retail space is transforming,” said Ravi Koul, marketing director, retail and hospitality at Philips Lighting. “At Carrefore,

Correction: Carrefor.

the app ties into the promotion system so a consumer can select and browse through the promotions.

“When they’re in the store, the app opens and the shopper can say ‘show all promotions around me.’” (Koul will be detailing this in a presentation at the MediaPost Iot Marketing Forum in New York on Aug. 3).

One of the main differences in using lighting for location is in cost, since to add the technology to the lighting is incremental, rather than having to install separate beacons, for example.

“They need lights, and they can outfit them with communications or not,” said Koul. “But adding the communication can make them future proof.”

The key is that location is becoming much more refined.

“Proximity marketing is different than indoor positioning,” said Koul. “There is nothing as accurate as lighting.”

As with beacons, consumers have to opt in to receive the light-triggered messaging.

Well, that’s good.

“People kind of like that as well, since they’re in control of the connectivity,” said van der Lugt.

In addition to the lighting-triggered technology, the fixtures can include beaconing technology, so that even while in a pocket or purse, the smartphone location can be identified and tracked.

But when opened, the person holding the phone can be located to within a few inches.

Better crosshairs. Nice.

As a next step I can almost hear a phone talking from a purse, saying “Let’s see what else you’ve got in here… Lipstick, a bunch of credit cards, an umbrella, a pack of smokes—hey, we thought you quit! Have you tried vaping? We have those on sale!"

The Internet of Things is birthing a new state of location.

As if the Internet of Things is only about retail promotions.

Here’s another MediaPost piece by Chuck Martin, from a few days ago:

61% Would Allow In-Store Mobile Tracking For Discounts, Coupons; 30% Say Never

Here’s the pull-quote that matters from that one:

only about a third (36%) of consumers have tried a mobile payment app in a store within the last year, more intent on using credit and debit cards, based on a new retail study.

Most (61%) of them say security issues are holding them back, according to the annual Future of Retail study, which comprised a survey of 1,400 U.S. consumers’ shopping habits, preferences and views on emerging retail technology conducted by Walker Sands Communications.

The rest of the post makes clear that the appetite for store apps, at least as of today, is bargain hunters and coupon clippers.

Okay, so let’s VRM this thing, and say we design a retail app for individual shoppers that gives them scale: one app for dealing with many stores. What would that app be? Are we already part way there with intelligent assistants and intentcasting? And can we pivot Chuck Martin’s and MediaPost’s interest in spyware-based IoT into an interest in shopping experiences led by shoppers themselves?

I’d like us to try.

Doc