Item — HN Reader

Not just "eavesdrop on workers". Also "eavesdrop on customers". The patent itself tells us:

"the sound sensors can capture sounds resulting from guests talking while waiting in line at a terminal or any other sounds resulting from the presence of guest ... the sound sensors can capture audio of conversations between guests and an employee stationed at the terminal. The system can process the audio of the conversations to determine whether the employee stationed at the terminal is greeting guests."

http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=10020004&SectionNum=1&IDK...

1 comments

I wonder how they'd make the required notifications to make this legal in one-party consent states. I don't see how this could fly at all in a two-party consent state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_recording_laws#Unite...

From what I recall, even in two-party states, simply informing the other party is implicit consent, even if they say they do not consent to being recorded. The only way to reject consent is to hang up the phone, ending the conversation.

(one-party state means I know I'm recording the conversation, so it's legal - I'm not obligated to inform the other party).

In stores, you'll often see a sign somewhere near the entrance that says something like "Smile, you're on camera!", along with a CCTV showing the feed - which is enough to implicitly consent recording when on the premises. If you don't consent, you must leave the store.

So, I imagine a simple sign telling customers both audio and video surveillance is being conducted will be sufficient.

That’s just to deter people from stealing. In public spaces and semi-public spaces consent does not need to be given. A store is considered a semi-public space. There is no expectation of privacy in a store. Anyone can take pictures of you and record you if they want and you legally cannot do anything about it. You do not have to leave the store if you do not give consent unless you don’t want to be recorded. You’re still going to be recorded in the parking lot.

If they're not actually recording the audio (just a boolean of whether or not the cashier said "did you find everything you needed?"), they might not need anyone's consent.

Which would require the somehow the audio is "intercepted" to analyze that the greeting was said. Two-party consent state include that action. Storage is another thing, no?

They don’t need consent. A store is semi-public space. There is no expectation of privacy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_space