Walmart patents surveillance tool to listen to employees conversations

Walmart has raised the ire of privacy advocates with a new patent for an audio surveillance tool. The freshly filed patent describes the need for'sounds sensors' and'listening to the frontend' technology in its stores that can pick up on conversations between employees and customers. Using these recordings, Walmart would identify employees in the audio and study it to measure their performance at the company. Walmart has raised the ire of privacy advocates with a patent for an audio surveillance tool. 'A need exists for ways to capture the sounds resulting from people in the shopping facility and determine performance of employees based on those sounds,' Walmart explains in the patent, which was filed April 20, 2017 but only made public this week.