# Wal-Mart's Secret Squirrels



## Marauder06 (Apr 6, 2007)

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/InsideWalMartsThreatResearchOperation.aspx

_Wal-Mart worker fired last month for intercepting a reporter's phone calls says he was part of a larger, sophisticated surveillance operation that included snooping not only on employees but also on critics, stockholders and the consulting firm McKinsey._

_The company also deployed cutting-edge monitoring systems made by a supplier to the Defense Department that allowed it to capture and record the actions of anyone connected to its global computer network. The systems' high-tech wizardry could detect the degree of flesh tone on a viewed Internet image and alerted monitors that a vendor sharing Wal-Mart networks was viewing pornography. _

:eek:


----------



## x SF med (Apr 6, 2007)

Big Brother at Wal-Mart....  how sad.


----------



## Paddlefoot (Apr 6, 2007)

> The systems' high-tech wizardry could detect the degree of flesh tone on a viewed Internet image and alerted monitors that a vendor sharing Wal-Mart networks was viewing pornography.



Wal-Mart is a very strange company, almost like a cult.

They just fired a couple of marketers they had hired to try and jazz things up within their advertising group. They wound up turning on them within less than a year, and a lot of the criticism came from some puritanical, prudish notions of how the world is.

Strannnge company. I don't even like walking into their stores, the whole greeter concept creeps me out for some reason. I don't need someone to "welcome" me to Wal-Mart or any other chain.


----------



## x SF med (Apr 6, 2007)

They aren't really greeting you, just slowing you down enough for the facial recognition software to work.


----------



## Paddlefoot (Apr 6, 2007)

x SF med said:


> They aren't really greeting you, just slowing you down enough for the facial recognition software to work.



lol

I'll bet when he was alive, Sam Walton sat in a control room at Wal-Mart HQ in Bentonville, with a wall of CCTV monitors covering every outlet. Just waiting for that one greeter who didn't show enough smiley faced enthusiasm.


----------



## Typhoon (Apr 6, 2007)

> I'll bet when he was alive, Sam Walton sat in a control room at Wal-Mart HQ in Bentonville, with a wall of CCTV monitors covering every outlet. Just waiting for that one greeter who didn't show enough smiley faced enthusiasm.


Yeah, and when Sam Walton was alive he went on national television in 1990 and said during a Wal-Mart advertisement that the chain would carry only American made goods...


----------



## Boondocksaint375 (Apr 7, 2007)

x SF med said:


> They aren't really greeting you, just slowing you down enough for the facial recognition software to work.


 

hahahaha


----------



## rangerpsych (Apr 7, 2007)

hence why i wear a hat, sunglasses, and grow my scruff out... can't recognise the grey man.. lol


----------



## Crusader74 (Apr 7, 2007)

x SF med said:


> They aren't really greeting you, just slowing you down enough for the facial recognition software to work.



LMAO!!


----------



## Paddlefoot (Apr 7, 2007)

Typhoon said:


> Yeah, and when Sam Walton was alive he went on national television in 1990 and said during a Wal-Mart advertisement that the chain would carry only American made goods...



Yep, Typhoon, back when many of their goods were actually made in the USA. That tune changed to "Low Prices, Everyday" in a hurry after most of the goods being made in the US were outsourced to China.

If the trend continues, Wal-Mart will start closing one of the US Wal-Marts for every Chinese store that opens, and when the Chinese finally outsource their last sweatshop and prison labor factory back to us, the circle will be complete.

Then we can start the whole cycle all over again, only in reverse.


----------



## Typhoon (Apr 7, 2007)

> and when the Chinese finally outsource their last sweatshop and prison labor factory back to us,


I just saw a pretty disturbing program on the way that the Chinese treat their labor force. Some of the workers making goods for the US market were getting 4 hours sleep a night and working the rest of the time...It is not good at all, but as long as we get "Low prices, every day" no one is going to complain about it...


----------



## Chopstick (Apr 7, 2007)

I refuse to enter Walmart.  I hate it.  It wasnt the Chinese that put me off the place..but the trailor trash wrecklessly driving the damn scooters all over the place.  :doh: 
Honestly it was because I didnt fit in.  I wasnt wearing anything NASCAR


----------



## Queen Beach (Apr 7, 2007)

The only Wal-Marts I have been in are the ones my Mother has worked at.

She was one of those funky greeters for a while ( I had no idea my Mom was a decoy for face recognition cameras.  I have even more respect for her now....LOL) ~ then she moved into Fabrics and Crafts...her home away from home.  She has worked for them for over 10 years.  Apparently they are getting out of the fabric business...but she will still get to be in the Crafts department so she is happy.  They have always been great to her and she loves working there.  The ones that she has worked in are in the more - Believe it or not nicer parts of town and have been surrounded by very nice shopping centers.  Yes you still get the mix of the dregs of society.   :2c: 

It ain't so bad! :cool:


----------



## QC (Jan 17, 2008)

I'm not that surprised at the inward looking security.


----------



## phridum (Jan 18, 2008)

Typhoon said:


> Yeah, and when Sam Walton was alive he went on national television in 1990 and said during a Wal-Mart advertisement that the chain would carry only American made goods...



Sam Walton actually ran a pretty tight ship when he was alive. When his spoiled brats took over, they became an evil empire.


----------



## Scotth (Jan 18, 2008)

x SF med said:


> They aren't really greeting you, just slowing you down enough for the facial recognition software to work.



Priceless:)


----------



## car (Jan 18, 2008)

:uhh: Is anyone really surprised?


----------



## Typhoon (Jan 18, 2008)

Wal-Mart has been busted twice here in CT for using illegal aliens as workers. In addition, at one of their locations here the store's management locked night employees in the store without any way of getting out in the event of a fire or other emergency. Needless to say the State Department of Labor was not amused...


----------



## Paddlefoot (Jan 21, 2008)

phridum said:


> Sam Walton actually ran a pretty tight ship when he was alive. When his spoiled brats took over, they became an evil empire.



One of his sons, who died in a plane crash a couple of years ago, was an SF Vietnam Vet, if I recall correctly. I don't think he got too caught up in the day to day ops at Wal-Mart though.

Conde Nast just came out with a new mag called _Portfolio_ last year, I'm not big on their publications but the premier issue of the magazine had a pretty good article on the Wal-Mart and other coroporations use of former intel guys to investigate both employees and competition. 

We probably have more to fear from Big Brother in the corporate sector in the long run than we do from government. They are sneaky bastards, pretext calls, video and electronic surveillance, the whole nine yards.


----------



## Ragnar Nads (Jan 24, 2008)

If Im in the dressing room at walmart I take off my drawrs and show the camera my giant discolored Nads.


----------



## Typhoon (Jan 24, 2008)

> We probably have more to fear from Big Brother in the corporate sector in the long run than we do from government. They are sneaky bastards, pretext calls, video and electronic surveillance, the whole nine yards.


Good point, Paddle...


----------

