Walmart, for example, is constantly looking for new strategies to generate more money. They want you to spend more time in their store, buy additional goods, and spend more money than you had intended. That’s why value sections and fast purchases that appeal to the bargain-hunter in all of us are so successful. But now Walmart may be inventing a data gathering method that would make Orwell’s 1984 look tame.

If Walmart gets its way, it plans to release a bunch of smart shopping carts that follow your movements and send data back to corporate. These proposed smart carts would watch where customers go in the store, how quickly they walk, and even their body temperature – All thanks to an array of sensors placed on each cart.

Walmart’s new shopping carts come with various features to improve the shopper experience. Now, not only can store associates be alerted if a customer is in danger of passing out, but the cart will also track your pulse so they’ll know when you see a good deal! Additionally, the smart cart is equipped with a weight-triggered push feature that makes it much easier to maneuver around heavy and expensive items.

Walmart wants to understand your needs while you’re in their store. They will analyze all the data they collect about you, and that data might be responded to in real time. For example, Walmart could tell if you were “not satisfied” with your biometrics and then alert a store associate to help you.

Some believe that technological advancements might aid customers. However, most individuals understand that Walmart just wants to gather a large amount of data about their consumers in order to better market to them and encourage them to buy more goods.

Walmart is changing the game with their latest patent for smart carts.

Walmart may also use audio recordings to listen to what you talk about while in the store. This will be used at checkouts to monitor cashiers and clients.

“A need exists for ways to capture the sounds resulting from people in the shopping facility and determine the performance of employees based on those sounds,” reads Walmart’s patent application, named ‘Listening to the Frontend.’

According to the patent, Walmart stated that they have a necessity to “always thinking about new concepts and ways that will help us further enhance how we serve customers. This patent is a concept that would help us gather metrics and improve the checkout process by listening to sounds produced by the bags, carts, and cash registers and not intended for any other use.”

Will you continue to shop at Walmart if it is monitoring your conversations and measuring your heart rate in-store? Does this kind of technology make you feel as though your privacy has been violated? Or is it only “good business”?