Walmart

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Walmart

Basic information
Founded	1962
Legal Structure	Public
Industry	Retail, Grocery
Also known as
Official website	https://www.walmart.com/

Walmart Inc. is an American company known for its chain of retail stores and ubiquitous presence across many states and countries.

Consumer impact summary

Walmart is known to enact surveillance measures in its stores through facial recognition at checkouts and Bluetooth tracking of customers using the Walmart app in store. They also collect vast amounts of data from customers on their website, on their mobile app, and in their physical stores. They have been known to sell this data to third parties.

Incidents

Facial recognition surveillance

Walmart's first use of facial recognition software dates back to 2015 from an experimental, temporary program but has only grown since then.

AI surveillance

It was reported in 2019 that Walmart uses AI-surveillance, internally dubbed Missed Scan Detection to monitor self-checkout as well as manned registers for the sake of detecting items that have not been scanned. They do this using Everseen, a facial recognition software based in Ireland, and it had only been reported on two years into Walmart's usage of the technology in which the company eventually confirmed it.

Use of Clearview AI

In February 2020, Buzzfeed News published a detailed report on the usage of Clearview AI, a company that created AI-powered facial recognition software by scraping images all across the internet including social media accounts.^{[citation needed]} In their report, it was found that Walmart had conducted nearly 300 searches on the facial recognition software, indicating the use of AI software to personally identify Walmart shoppers.

App Spyware via Bluetooth

Walmart uses a technology called Bluetooth beacon, a device often found in physical retail locations used for precise indoor positioning. particularly for monitoring customers with the Walmart app installed on their smartphones. The Bluetooth device is often hidden on the top of shelving units inside retail stored and then connects with the smartphone device of customers often through retailer apps. Although this may include connecting to other Spyware apps on customers' smartphones not owned by the actual retailer. While many advertisers often use cellphone towers and GPS technology to track and advertise to consumers based on their location, Bluetooth beacons are significantly more precise, especially indoors where they are used in places like airports and shopping malls to track individuals. This allows companies like Walmart to send precise location data of customers to third-party advertisers, allowing highly specific targeted ads depending on which aisle the customer happens to be standing in.

Data collection

Walmart collects an extensive amount of data, including specific personal and legal identifiers, as outlined in their privacy notice:

• Basic Personal Identifiers, such as name, telephone number, physical address, email address, government-issued identifiers (e.g., national identification numbers, driver’s license numbers), and signatures.
• Device and Online Identifiers, such as account login information, MAC address, IP address, cookie IDs, mobile ad IDs, and social media information.
• Internet and Other Network Activity Information, such as information about your browsing or search activity as well as your interactions with our websites, mobile applications, emails, or advertisements (for example keystroke patterns which help us determine if it is you or a bot who is interacting with us).
• Commercial Information, such as purchase and transaction history information (products or services you have purchased, rented, or returned), details about products associated with services you receive from or through us (e.g., car make, model, year, odometer reading, and Vehicle Identification Number when you visit our Auto Care Center), product reviews, travel and vacation information, and sweepstakes and contest entries.
• Communications, such as the content of emails, text messages, interactions with our bot (AI assistant chatbots), or other communications, call logs, and calendar information, where Walmart is a party to the exchange.
• Demographic Information, such as age, gender, citizenship, ethnicity, date of birth, family or marital status, household income, education, professional and employment information, family health, number of children, number of cars owned, and software or virtual assets owned.
• Financial Information, such as credit or debit card numbers, and financial account numbers.
• Biometric Information, such as voice prints, imagery of the iris or retina, face geometry, and palm prints or fingerprints.
• Geolocation, such as data about the location of your device, which may be imprecise (i.e., inferred from your device’s IP address). If you provide your consent, this data may be precise. For more information about precise geolocation, see the How Do We Collect Personal Information? > Collected Through Automated Means section below.
• Sensory Information, such as audio, visual information, and other sensory information such as photographs and audio and video recordings.
• Background Information, such as background checks and criminal convictions.
• Inferences, such as individual preferences and characteristics. This may include inferences drawn from and related to shopping patterns and behaviors, intelligence, and aptitudes.

Data sent to third parties

In February 2021, Walmart launched a company called Walmart Data Ventures, a division for Walmart to sell first-party data collected from customers and their own business operations. Scintilla, previously known as Walmart Luminate, is the core product of Walmart Data Ventures, and provides buyers with a suite of data insights and tools to better market to consumers.

Employees' 401k data leak (2024)

In April 2024, Walmart experienced a data breach of personally identifiable information for nearly 2,000 employees, including names and social security numbers, due to Walmart's retirement plan administrator sending an accidental email with the information. Walmart responded by providing employees with identity theft protection for a rough total of $1 million.

Refusal to refund older bricked Onn devices (2025)

Main article: Walmart's refusal to replace bricked Onn devices after forced update

In June 2025, Walmart began updating their Onn streaming devices from Android 10 and 12 to 14. After the first attempt at the updates bricked older devices from 2021, Walmart's Onn customer support refused to grant refunds or replacements for devices over the one year manufacturer's warranty.^{[citation needed]}

Lawsuits

Illinois privacy laws

Walmart is facing a class action suit for allegedly violating an Illinois privacy law by using surveillance cameras and Clearview AI's facial recognition database.

Weighted groceries settlement

In 2022 a class action lawsuit was filed against Walmart in Florida mainly alleging that Walmart falsely inflated product weight, mislabeled weight of bagged produce and overcharged for sold-by-weight clearance products. While Walmart denies any wrongdoing they agreed to pay $45 million to settle the case in 2024.