You are the CTO of a large grocery chain. Some time ago, you commissioned prototype development of
Question:
You are the CTO of a large grocery chain. Some time ago, you commissioned prototype development of a cutting-edge shopping app intended to promote increased sales and customer loyalty. While promising, some of the features that the product team have integrated into the prototype have given you pause. Specifically, the team has integrated extensive AI functionality such that the app is capable of things like:
- 1. Analyzing purchases and making significant inferences about the personal life of the shopper. It will then use the inferences to make buying recommendations.
- 2. Utilizing GPS to determine if the shopper is also shopping at competing grocery stores. Based on the time the shopper is at the given store, the app estimates the amount of money the shopper is spending there and uses the comparison data to determine which digital coupons to load into the app to influence the shopper to stay in your store.
- 3. Utilizing the shopper’s social media posts and contacts to further market goods and services including affiliate organizations on the shopper’s social media feed.
- 4. Measuring the difference of time between start of checkout and leaving the parking lot combined with the size of the purchase to estimate the checkout time. It can then use this information to estimate the productivity of the cashiers.
- 5. Archiving GPS data and selling the location information to interested 3rd parties.
- 6. Monitors shopping history and uses the data to recommend similar products with higher profit margins.
As a technical leader in the organization, you see the potential financial benefit of using such an app for your customers but your hesitation is out of concern for a loss of privacy for your customers. However, after some thought and research on the matter, you come to a conclusion.
- In a post, submit your conclusion on the matter above. Do you move forward with the app’s deployment or do you stop development? Do you instead move forward with a subset of the functionality, electing to disable some of the features of the app.
Principles of Information Systems
ISBN: 978-1305971776
13th edition
Authors: Ralph Stair, George Reynolds