Beyond the Self Check-Out: AI Surveillance in Grocery Stores | ギンジ | BSides312 2026

The most dangerous place you visit every week isn't on the dark web. It's aisle 7. ギンジ🐾ターラノー is breaking down how AI is tracking your habits and manipulating your choices...at the grocery store. Some of it is clever; all of it is creepy. Embark on an exotic journey to a place fraught with danger and wonderment. A place where AI is leveraged to both enhance AND enshittify your experience, examine you and your habits, and extort them! --- About ギンジ🐾ターラノー: Token hyena furry ギンジ🐾ターラノー (Ginji Terrano) is a spotted hyena who specializes in figuring out how things work at their core, then manipulating them to do things they don't normally do. ギンジ (Ginji) has spoken at several conferences ranging from identity governance systems to, not only preserving arcade games, but how to leverage them for weight loss. ギンジ (Ginji) gives back to the community by helping with programming at Furvana, and DEFCON Furs, both at DEF CON and locally at Midwest FurFest. Recorded live at BSides312 2026. --- Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:45 Who Am I: Chicago's Token Infosec Hyena 1:15 AI Is Like a Dog: No Bad Dogs, Just Bad Owners 2:15 The D&D Alignment Chart 2:40 The AI Cucumber Inspector 4:45 Useful Applications: COVID-Era Automation 6:00 Walmart Floor Scrubbers Running BrainOS 7:00 The Auditory Experience 7:45 Music as a Deterrent: Baby Shark on Loop 9:15 AI-Generated Music and Shopper Mood 9:30 Eagle Foods and the Cassette Tape Era 10:30 A Romanian Grocery Store's AI Soundtrack 12:00 Who Actually Benefits From Unlicensed Music? 12:30 Tempo, Dwell Time, and Demographic Shaping 14:45 The Visual Experience: Layout and Planograms 16:45 When You Ask AI to Design the Layout 17:15 Online Shopping and Bluetooth Beacons 18:15 The Right-Turn Rule 19:15 Pricing Optimization 20:00 Instacart's Randomized Pricing Experiment 20:30 Target: Three Prices for the Same Item 21:15 Perceived Demographic and the Vending Machine BIPA Case 22:00 Shopping History and Price Nudging 22:30 JetBlue and the $230 Increase 24:00 Electronic Shelf Labels 24:45 The Apple That Costs Whatever It Wants 27:00 How They Surveil You: Cameras and Facial Recognition 27:45 Loyalty Cards 28:15 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Defeating MAC Randomization 29:00 Payment Data as an Identifier 29:30 The Omega Loyalty Club 30:45 How to Protect Yourself 31:30 Avoid Personalized Coupons and Store Apps 32:55 Don't Arrive in a Car With a Plate 33:20 AI Carts and Palm Readers 33:50 Shop Privacy-Conscious Stores 34:15 Support Legislation --- Mentioned in this talk: - BrainOS - Suno AI - Flock cameras - Illinois BIPA - Instacart pricing study Full BSides312 2026 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZnyzZE8j8jw