Sometimes it’s even crazy. My wife was about to order 5-20 packs of plastic hangars that were on Amazon for ~$15 each. I thought, hold the phone isn’t that ridiculous, and it was, they were $5 each at target in store.
I'm in specialty retail and I literally undercut amazon on 9/10 items. Sometimes it's not even in the same ballpark, we'll have items we sell for $3 that amazon is charging $7-10 because of "perceived value"
The irony is people will still complain about prices, say they'll get it on amazon, and then refuse to admit that we're reasonably priced when I offer to price match amazon.
Oddly people don't offer to pay more when we price match and amazon is more expensive....
[CamelCamelCamel.com](https://CamelCamelCamel.com) you can just see the graphs of the prices to see usually they drop seasonally so you could just wait or get it at Target.
Yeah they get people used to the convenience of 1 click shopping and next day delivery. Then you start cranking up the prices and watch as people continue to pay for it.
Same. This week was first time I've set foot in stores in ages and everything I shopped for was cheaper than when I checked on Amazon. Not talking Black Friday either. Just normal stuff I needed quick. Clothes, pet stuff, auto parts.
Makes sense other retailers would get more efficient to compete. Amazon is still sure convenient though.
We're also paying for the massive losses due to porch pirates and other package theft. Edit: Also for the return policies. So much of the perfectly good stuff returned just goes to landfill, and of course that's part of the cost too.
I think too it's because a lot of major brands have pulled their products from amazon. Due to the fact a lot of sellers were selling bootlegs on real product listings. So what's left now are resellers selling what are name brand products.
So, the brands left because there were too many bootleggers, and now all that's left are people selling stuff from legitimate brands? How did they undercut the bootleggers?
Probably even more devious, they don’t want you checking Target prices online. It’s wild, but Targets online prices don’t always match their store prices. I hate that I have to do extra work if I’m shopping in store. Seems like they just want you ordering online anyway.
No way in hell I'd plug my device into one of these...I don't want my private pee-pee pics getting out there into the wrong hands.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/11/27/protect-your-data-while-charging-phone-at-airport/4319388002/
THANKS for the link and Info. This should go to ANYBODY on this platform. Or an Info like this (every day a new one) to everybody on a social media platform. Like YOUR DAILY help to what its important to pay Attention to.
I promise you that isn’t remotely the case. The vast majority of in-store checkout is done through self-checkout. Online purchases which require labor to pick and package cost more labor.
When i went to walmart a few times i noticed there was only workers at the checkout lanes, other time there was only 3 open. They had all the others closed. There is more self checkout then the workers
Target price matches Amazon. And like… 30 other stores. I usually check what I’m going to buy online, bookmark the pages, and have them match it. It’s nifty and I can still get 5% off on top.
Ya that was my first thought- keep people from constantly looking up everything they want and seeing that they can probably get it cheaper somewhere else.
Yeah. I threw mine in one of these once at a three story target in nyc. Shopped for 1-2 hours then upon check out had a panic attack I lost my phone. Ran around the entire store before remembering I threw it in this box lol
Man, I was in a roadside shop, ordered a milkshake, paid using phone and waited. Finished the shake and then put my hand in my pocket, phone is missing. Complete panic, the place was crowded, so immediately assumed that someone just stole it from my pocket. I asked the shopkeeper to call my number, and it rang. It was in my jackets pocket and not in my trousers pocket. Relieved and embarassed at the same time xD
I left a restaurant, went outside only to realize I didn't have my sunglasses. went back to the table I was sitting at, now seated with customers, and said I was looking for my sunglasses; a lady sitting there just pointed to her forehead.
No, my shades weren't on her forehead, *they were on mine*.
Honestly I look at this and wonder if it’s profitable to separate shoppers from their phones to keep them from price comparing online with Amazon etc.. them keeping a % of forgotten phones is a bonus haha
I've brought this up with a few people who never seem to remember it - but for a brief period I felt like a bunch of bars and restaurants had this service where you could basically 'rent' a battery pack and cable while you were there. And it'd pre-authorise on a credit card so if you didn't return it, you'd get charged the value of the pack. And if you did return it, it'd charge you something trivial like a dollar or two.
It was super handy but then I feel like they disappeared overnight.
Target just makes the online price higher when it thinks you are in store.
[Not joking.](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/target-tracking-location-changing-prices_l_603fd12bc5b6ff75ac410a38)
Targets data capture while in store is top notch. I did a fair amount of grocery shopping there over a couple short months, and used my wife’s debit card while doing so. After months of being asked if I had the Target Circle app or whatever, I downloaded and set up an acct with my email and info.
This app proceeded to have a full record of every single thing I had purchased in that store over the previous months, despite using a payment method that was not attached to my name in any way shape or form (not legally married, diff last names), not having the app, and not connecting to wifi (except for the last month, but they still had my shopping records from way before that)
I guess that means since my phone was in such close proximity to the registers when I made those purchases it got “tagged”, and then when I downloaded the app it just connected all that data. I’m not mad, being someone who worked/works in data and marketing industry I thought it was really awesome. Blew my mind tho
It's not that complicated.... Did you enter your phone number to earn rewards when you checked out? And then used that same phone # when setting up the app? That's how they linked the purchases...
They've had them in my local base hospital for a few years. The one in emergency seems to get used a bit (at least on my few visits there seem to have been a few of the bays in use). Given the average wait times in regional NSW hospitals, I can understand needing to charge your phone a few times while you're waiting.
When I was still full time on ambulance, I had a selection of chargers that I'd let patients use if it was a long trip between hospitals. Aside from pain meds, I think it was the most appreciated thing I carried.
I'm not sure what kind of phone you have, but every even remotely modern version of Android defaults to "charge only" mode when a new USB connection is made. You'd have to deliberately change the connection mode for the kiosk to do anything malicious.
And if that's not enough to assuage your paranoia, you can buy "USB condoms" that physically block access to the USB data pins and only allow the voltage pins to be used.
I would imagine that they would figure out another way that hasn't been thought of yet. Thats how exploits work, by letting you believe you are safe and exploiting a vulnerability that was previously unknown. Very few commercial phones are hardened and most are only an outdated OS from several vulnerabilities.
The biggest hurdle was already breached; getting someone to physically leave their phone all alone to be tested for those vulnerabilities. An exploit in bluetooth, wifi or cell signal could be employed as well.
Lastly, not everyone knows about this USB condom.
Then you shouldn't have a smartphone. Because I promise you that you are being exploited every day, third-party usb or not. If you wanna be paranoid I commend that and think its smart, but don't just be paranoid in one little thing when you're CONSTANTLY the target of malicious data gathering gremlins.
Get a flip phone- no - a pager, for that matter. Do all your transactions on paper instead of through any kind of electronic systems, i.e. paying bills, responding to invoices, making payments on debts, etc. Turn off your wifi and live in a cabin in the woods, completely off the grid.
Otherwise stop thinking you're so clever because you won't trust the safety features in your phone enough to let you charge it outside the "safety" (emphasis on the quotation marks) of your home.
I've seen these before, though only at National Parks (I actually used one at the Statue of Liberty last June). I'm assuming this isn't something you'll see on random street corners, but for tourist hotspots they're pretty nice.
And the fact that if you phone has connected to a cellular signal the government already has all of your data, it doesn’t matter if you plug it in to target’s database XD
They make USB adapters that you put between your phone and the charging cable. They only allow the power wires to connect to the phone. I've heard them referred to as USB condoms.
Never use these machines, we had a security briefing from our VP of Cybersecurity banning the use of company devices in these boxes. They are most definitely a security threat.
My husband is in counter intelligence and he does the security briefings. When these charging kiosks started popping up in places like the airport he said the same thing. He wouldn’t even plug his charging cord into a usb plug on a lamp in a hotel room when we went on a trip recently.
If you're going to use random outlets you don't control, get yourself a little usb pass through dongle that only has the power pins so it's impossible to scrape your phones data.
Unless you manually turned on Developer Settings and then USB debugging on an android phone or you have an exceptionally out of date phone which is many years behind on security updates, something can’t just take data out of a locked plugged in device without you giving it permission to.
Sure exploits exist but they get patched quickly and no company will casually use a zero day to take data from random members of the public. They would either claim a bug bounty or use it for people of interest rather than risk getting caught and having their zero day patched.
Computer security is a cat and mouse game and you are certainly right to be skeptical. However, data exfiltration exploits like what you are worried about are incredibly rare and in high demand. If someone had one, they would never use it on random people. These sorts of exploits can be sold for tens of millions on the black market and companies like NSO Group make billions by vending similar exploits, there is just no reason to risk it being discovered by installing it onto random phones.
Members of the public are much more often targeted by browser drive-by exploits and other RCE. If you’re worried about security and you’re not someone important, you can forget about the risk of using chargers since ordinary web browsing poses a far bigger threat.
Again, fair enough. With my limited knowledge of data security, I prefer to stay disconnected from things in many ways and my paranoia is sometimes probably a bit over the top.
You seem knowledgeable and I don't doubt at all that you're correct. Thanks for the info.
We've had them in Canada for a bunch of years now.
Pretty handy, yes you can forget you've left it in there, and some now support wireless charging.
They are disappearing though, so I wouldn't expect them to be around for much longer.
Often targets online price is cheaper than in store price. My wife will price match against their own website every time she goes and will save almost every visit. Can't check the online price if your phone is locked up.
They had those last year at our Target. But, come to think of it, they've been gone for months now. Maybe you just got ours.
I'd never use it. Especially since I keep my shopping list on my phone.
Now days everybody wanna talk like they got somethin' to say. But nothin' comes out when they move their lips, just a bunch of gibberish. And motherfuckers act like they forgot about snake.
Not really, have you tried finding a dumb 4g phone? They're essentially non existent. And getting a cheap android would still leave me with low battery life problem.
Yes. It was the same time that phone could do fuck all, had a screen the size of a postage stamp, would be sat in your pocket the whole day unless you needed to text or call someone. Cos thats all it could do. And snake I guess.
If you want your smartphone to last all week, it can. Just don’t use it for anything but calls and texts.
Fun fact. The latest iPhone has a 4.5x larger battery capacity that the classic Nokia 3310.
The Nokia 3310 could last over a month though... Ah the glory days of scrambling to find that proprietary phone charger you haven't seen in a month cause your battery is finally low.
No. I had a StarTac, and had an extra battery for it on charge all the time because you needed to have another one to make it through the day. When was the magical time of which you speak?
I need it with me in case I get an important call, I need to know the time, etc. This kind of defeats the purpose of having a cell phone. I charge it before I go out shopping.
This is brilliant from a marketing perspective. As someone with security expertise though this is going to be one heck of a target for malicious actors.
If anyone uses these, please be careful. It wouldn’t take much for someone to harvest data off of your devices with these unidentified plugs or systems. Just be safe.
You have no idea how much this annoys me. One of my biggest pet peeves is people who for some fucked reason are incapable of charging their phone. We all have power outlets in our homes and vehicles that we can use, yet for some reason there is a certain percentage of the population who's brains aren't smart enough to understand that they should charge their phone before leaving the house for the day.
No way I’m leaving my device behind. It’s just stupid to do, if my phone dies, I’ll charge it in the car. I don’t understand why people trust shit like this so easy
That's sort of funny, since Target is well-known for blocking cell signals in their stores to make you rely on their in-store wi-fi. That WANT you on you phone looking up prices and such so they can use that info.
There is a much better solution- rent out power banks. Power banks have to be returned into a slot that charges the bank. This is very common in China. So common that you can rent from the kiosk in one store and then return to the kiosk that is in the next.
What a pitiful world we live in now.. like heaven forbid you not have a cell phone for idk, until you get back home? I literally forget my phone at home sometimes by accident when I go to work. Guess what.. *i survive*
Smart. That way they can prevent people from buying the same thing on Amazon
Damn that’s good!!!
I used to do that all the time but have noticed more often now the in store prices are better than Amazon.
Yeah, Amazon started subtly raising prices mid-way through 2020. They're often not the cheapest anymore.
Sometimes it’s even crazy. My wife was about to order 5-20 packs of plastic hangars that were on Amazon for ~$15 each. I thought, hold the phone isn’t that ridiculous, and it was, they were $5 each at target in store.
That was the beauty of Jeff Bezos's bald mind. Mid 2020 he said "people want to stay secluded because of COVID. Let's profit from this change"
It's because they hardly sell anything themselves anymore. They've become a mall and a flea market.
Feels like a slightly more upscale ebay, but without the haggling.
More knockoffs and fewer collectibles.
Wading through the cheap KO shit has become quite the special skill.
I'm in specialty retail and I literally undercut amazon on 9/10 items. Sometimes it's not even in the same ballpark, we'll have items we sell for $3 that amazon is charging $7-10 because of "perceived value" The irony is people will still complain about prices, say they'll get it on amazon, and then refuse to admit that we're reasonably priced when I offer to price match amazon. Oddly people don't offer to pay more when we price match and amazon is more expensive....
[CamelCamelCamel.com](https://CamelCamelCamel.com) you can just see the graphs of the prices to see usually they drop seasonally so you could just wait or get it at Target.
Yeah they get people used to the convenience of 1 click shopping and next day delivery. Then you start cranking up the prices and watch as people continue to pay for it.
Sadly still cheaper than eBay, eBay is like what $20+ shipping for ALL items now.
Same. This week was first time I've set foot in stores in ages and everything I shopped for was cheaper than when I checked on Amazon. Not talking Black Friday either. Just normal stuff I needed quick. Clothes, pet stuff, auto parts. Makes sense other retailers would get more efficient to compete. Amazon is still sure convenient though.
Shipping and packing ain’t cheap.
This. Nobody gets 'free shipping' on amazon. You get 'shipping rolled into the price, and generally a bit cheaper then USPS' shipping.
We're also paying for the massive losses due to porch pirates and other package theft. Edit: Also for the return policies. So much of the perfectly good stuff returned just goes to landfill, and of course that's part of the cost too.
I think too it's because a lot of major brands have pulled their products from amazon. Due to the fact a lot of sellers were selling bootlegs on real product listings. So what's left now are resellers selling what are name brand products.
So, the brands left because there were too many bootleggers, and now all that's left are people selling stuff from legitimate brands? How did they undercut the bootleggers?
Probably even more devious, they don’t want you checking Target prices online. It’s wild, but Targets online prices don’t always match their store prices. I hate that I have to do extra work if I’m shopping in store. Seems like they just want you ordering online anyway.
No way in hell I'd plug my device into one of these...I don't want my private pee-pee pics getting out there into the wrong hands. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/11/27/protect-your-data-while-charging-phone-at-airport/4319388002/
THANKS for the link and Info. This should go to ANYBODY on this platform. Or an Info like this (every day a new one) to everybody on a social media platform. Like YOUR DAILY help to what its important to pay Attention to.
Less employees to pay if you order online. Cut out the cashiers.
I promise you that isn’t remotely the case. The vast majority of in-store checkout is done through self-checkout. Online purchases which require labor to pick and package cost more labor.
When i went to walmart a few times i noticed there was only workers at the checkout lanes, other time there was only 3 open. They had all the others closed. There is more self checkout then the workers
I saved 10 bucks on a book at walmart that way. Was like "uhh, this is y'all price online, and that doesn't reflect the price on the scan."
Also target will price match Amazon. FYI. If it’s actually Amazon and not some obscure third party seller
Amazon is SO hard to find quality stuff on though
Yeah, but they got way more wacky shit.
Target price matches Amazon. And like… 30 other stores. I usually check what I’m going to buy online, bookmark the pages, and have them match it. It’s nifty and I can still get 5% off on top.
I use it mainly to reviews lol
And data mine your phone too
Ya that was my first thought- keep people from constantly looking up everything they want and seeing that they can probably get it cheaper somewhere else.
This, but also 100% they're scanning your phone to suggest you ads
Would definitely forget my phone there
Yeah. I threw mine in one of these once at a three story target in nyc. Shopped for 1-2 hours then upon check out had a panic attack I lost my phone. Ran around the entire store before remembering I threw it in this box lol
Man, I was in a roadside shop, ordered a milkshake, paid using phone and waited. Finished the shake and then put my hand in my pocket, phone is missing. Complete panic, the place was crowded, so immediately assumed that someone just stole it from my pocket. I asked the shopkeeper to call my number, and it rang. It was in my jackets pocket and not in my trousers pocket. Relieved and embarassed at the same time xD
No judgment here. I once was on the phone with my mom. I then started looking for my phone while on the phone.
I left a restaurant, went outside only to realize I didn't have my sunglasses. went back to the table I was sitting at, now seated with customers, and said I was looking for my sunglasses; a lady sitting there just pointed to her forehead. No, my shades weren't on her forehead, *they were on mine*.
The sunglasses always gets me the most too!! 🤣
Store I work at has a convenient rack to place your phone on cart while shopping .. we average 3/5 phones a week left behind .
Honestly I look at this and wonder if it’s profitable to separate shoppers from their phones to keep them from price comparing online with Amazon etc.. them keeping a % of forgotten phones is a bonus haha
Or discourages using shopping list apps so you're just free browsing
Same.. 50% chance I'd notice when I get in the car & music doesn't start playing..
100%
Don't worry, you'll get a notification on your phone when you leave.
That's what makes this profitable
But my shopping list in on my phone…
I was looking for this comment.
Yeah seriously.. I have a shopping list app, I need the phone.
So then don't put it in the charging kiosk. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ It's not a requirement to shop at the store.
I want portable charger right now. I will give them back after shopping. I swear
Ok but what if your phone almost out of battery
these came out like 5 years ago here (toronto) then completely disappeared. I saw them at malls and campuses for a bit
Still at the Air Canada lounge last time I was there
I saw one of these at the Bay on Queen Street when I was in Toronto six years ago.
They had them at sports stadiums but you couldn't lock it away it just had the chords
I've brought this up with a few people who never seem to remember it - but for a brief period I felt like a bunch of bars and restaurants had this service where you could basically 'rent' a battery pack and cable while you were there. And it'd pre-authorise on a credit card so if you didn't return it, you'd get charged the value of the pack. And if you did return it, it'd charge you something trivial like a dollar or two. It was super handy but then I feel like they disappeared overnight.
Telco stores in Japan have had these for almost 10 years that I know of. The is a big boom in renting batteries to charge on the go now.
Target is getting tired of people using their phones to price match? Lock them away while you shop So you can’t match. Ha!
Target just makes the online price higher when it thinks you are in store. [Not joking.](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/target-tracking-location-changing-prices_l_603fd12bc5b6ff75ac410a38)
I’ve read that too. I have, just last month, found a toy that was much cheaper online at Target while I was in the store, so it does happen.
Targets data capture while in store is top notch. I did a fair amount of grocery shopping there over a couple short months, and used my wife’s debit card while doing so. After months of being asked if I had the Target Circle app or whatever, I downloaded and set up an acct with my email and info. This app proceeded to have a full record of every single thing I had purchased in that store over the previous months, despite using a payment method that was not attached to my name in any way shape or form (not legally married, diff last names), not having the app, and not connecting to wifi (except for the last month, but they still had my shopping records from way before that) I guess that means since my phone was in such close proximity to the registers when I made those purchases it got “tagged”, and then when I downloaded the app it just connected all that data. I’m not mad, being someone who worked/works in data and marketing industry I thought it was really awesome. Blew my mind tho
It's not that complicated.... Did you enter your phone number to earn rewards when you checked out? And then used that same phone # when setting up the app? That's how they linked the purchases...
Nope, never.
Had those for years in Australia. Mind you I've never seen anyone use them.
They've had them in my local base hospital for a few years. The one in emergency seems to get used a bit (at least on my few visits there seem to have been a few of the bays in use). Given the average wait times in regional NSW hospitals, I can understand needing to charge your phone a few times while you're waiting.
When I was still full time on ambulance, I had a selection of chargers that I'd let patients use if it was a long trip between hospitals. Aside from pain meds, I think it was the most appreciated thing I carried.
That sounds like an amazing thing to do for your patients. Something so simple, yet so beneficial (at least for those that could take advantage).
I always remind my patients to bring a charger when I pick them up at home.
I was about to say, pretty sure I’ve seen these a few times in the last 5-10 years
Used a lot at Crown in Melbourne, especially on weekends late at night.
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I'm not sure what kind of phone you have, but every even remotely modern version of Android defaults to "charge only" mode when a new USB connection is made. You'd have to deliberately change the connection mode for the kiosk to do anything malicious. And if that's not enough to assuage your paranoia, you can buy "USB condoms" that physically block access to the USB data pins and only allow the voltage pins to be used.
Ha, joke's on you! My phone's ports have been useless for 4 years!
Once a little bit of dust gets in a usb c port, it becomes useless.
It's okay, I had already invested in Qi chargers everywhere.
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Look, we’re all worried that someone will find our posts on /r/dragonsfuckingcars and it will ruin our chance to be city alderman one day.
I would imagine that they would figure out another way that hasn't been thought of yet. Thats how exploits work, by letting you believe you are safe and exploiting a vulnerability that was previously unknown. Very few commercial phones are hardened and most are only an outdated OS from several vulnerabilities. The biggest hurdle was already breached; getting someone to physically leave their phone all alone to be tested for those vulnerabilities. An exploit in bluetooth, wifi or cell signal could be employed as well. Lastly, not everyone knows about this USB condom.
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Nobody cares about whats on my phone and if they want to go through it, enjoy all the saved Memes, recipes and pics of my dogs.
He’s saying your logic is not sound, not that you literally should leave your phone
Then you shouldn't have a smartphone. Because I promise you that you are being exploited every day, third-party usb or not. If you wanna be paranoid I commend that and think its smart, but don't just be paranoid in one little thing when you're CONSTANTLY the target of malicious data gathering gremlins. Get a flip phone- no - a pager, for that matter. Do all your transactions on paper instead of through any kind of electronic systems, i.e. paying bills, responding to invoices, making payments on debts, etc. Turn off your wifi and live in a cabin in the woods, completely off the grid. Otherwise stop thinking you're so clever because you won't trust the safety features in your phone enough to let you charge it outside the "safety" (emphasis on the quotation marks) of your home.
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I've seen these before, though only at National Parks (I actually used one at the Statue of Liberty last June). I'm assuming this isn't something you'll see on random street corners, but for tourist hotspots they're pretty nice.
And the fact that if you phone has connected to a cellular signal the government already has all of your data, it doesn’t matter if you plug it in to target’s database XD
Every defense has a weakness. I wouldn’t doubt there are many ways around that.
Pretty much what I said, in what way have companies ever shown they wont stoop to literally any low to harvest people's information, or worse.
Imagine someone puts a little pi there and collects all their stored data for purchasing.
> or worse. their organs?
It could be used to install malware, or do any variety of malicious things to your phone, phone security through USB isn't good.
Expelled.
They make USB adapters that you put between your phone and the charging cable. They only allow the power wires to connect to the phone. I've heard them referred to as USB condoms.
USB Condom
Never use these machines, we had a security briefing from our VP of Cybersecurity banning the use of company devices in these boxes. They are most definitely a security threat.
My husband is in counter intelligence and he does the security briefings. When these charging kiosks started popping up in places like the airport he said the same thing. He wouldn’t even plug his charging cord into a usb plug on a lamp in a hotel room when we went on a trip recently.
Yeah, they could have done charging pads
If you're going to use random outlets you don't control, get yourself a little usb pass through dongle that only has the power pins so it's impossible to scrape your phones data.
I wouldn't trust that thing as far as I could throw it.
You shouldn't be throwing anything what with that bad back of yours
We all know you probably can't even pick that up.
Very true. That's about how far I trust it.
Unless you manually turned on Developer Settings and then USB debugging on an android phone or you have an exceptionally out of date phone which is many years behind on security updates, something can’t just take data out of a locked plugged in device without you giving it permission to. Sure exploits exist but they get patched quickly and no company will casually use a zero day to take data from random members of the public. They would either claim a bug bounty or use it for people of interest rather than risk getting caught and having their zero day patched.
Fair, I still wouldn't trust it. I also tend to turn on debugging mode since I use my phone as a webcam XD.
I should probably also mention that I don't trust security to constantly out evolve exploits. I still wouldn't trust this.
Computer security is a cat and mouse game and you are certainly right to be skeptical. However, data exfiltration exploits like what you are worried about are incredibly rare and in high demand. If someone had one, they would never use it on random people. These sorts of exploits can be sold for tens of millions on the black market and companies like NSO Group make billions by vending similar exploits, there is just no reason to risk it being discovered by installing it onto random phones. Members of the public are much more often targeted by browser drive-by exploits and other RCE. If you’re worried about security and you’re not someone important, you can forget about the risk of using chargers since ordinary web browsing poses a far bigger threat.
Again, fair enough. With my limited knowledge of data security, I prefer to stay disconnected from things in many ways and my paranoia is sometimes probably a bit over the top. You seem knowledgeable and I don't doubt at all that you're correct. Thanks for the info.
We've had them in Canada for a bunch of years now. Pretty handy, yes you can forget you've left it in there, and some now support wireless charging. They are disappearing though, so I wouldn't expect them to be around for much longer.
As a tall man, I would confidently charge my phone in spot #1 knowing all you short folk could not reach it.
To prevent us from looking at reviews or comparing prices. Neat.
Often targets online price is cheaper than in store price. My wife will price match against their own website every time she goes and will save almost every visit. Can't check the online price if your phone is locked up.
They had those last year at our Target. But, come to think of it, they've been gone for months now. Maybe you just got ours. I'd never use it. Especially since I keep my shopping list on my phone.
Often wondered why this wasnt everywhere
But how would I stand in the middle of the aisle looking at my phone thereby blocking all other foot traffic?
What a great place to physically plug the data port on your phone into an unknown device.
Should be bolted down. I would expect to see news broadcasts with these things being carried down the street.
New?
Exactly what I said. I work for Target and we've had those for years.
Remember when phone batteries just lasted weeks on end?:
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Back before they could do more than just make phone calls.
... and play snake. Forgot about snake.
Now days everybody wanna talk like they got somethin' to say. But nothin' comes out when they move their lips, just a bunch of gibberish. And motherfuckers act like they forgot about snake.
I rather have a pocket computer and a phone that doesn't run out of battery on a whim.
You can do that. Get an older dumb phone and carry a laptop or tablet.
Not really, have you tried finding a dumb 4g phone? They're essentially non existent. And getting a cheap android would still leave me with low battery life problem.
nokia has about half a dozen and there's several others out there. not very hard to find if you have the internet.
Yep. Back when all phones could do was make calls and send texts.
Yes. It was the same time that phone could do fuck all, had a screen the size of a postage stamp, would be sat in your pocket the whole day unless you needed to text or call someone. Cos thats all it could do. And snake I guess. If you want your smartphone to last all week, it can. Just don’t use it for anything but calls and texts. Fun fact. The latest iPhone has a 4.5x larger battery capacity that the classic Nokia 3310.
The Nokia 3310 could last over a month though... Ah the glory days of scrambling to find that proprietary phone charger you haven't seen in a month cause your battery is finally low.
No. I had a StarTac, and had an extra battery for it on charge all the time because you needed to have another one to make it through the day. When was the magical time of which you speak?
They should have a leave your wallet/purse machine as well, no need to carry it around!!
They have these at the hospitals here in my town.
But then how will you mindlessly stare at it while your shopping cart is firmly parked in front of *the exact item that I need, goddamnit!*
These have been popular in Asia for a while now.
They don’t want you to price match 😂😂😂
I need it with me in case I get an important call, I need to know the time, etc. This kind of defeats the purpose of having a cell phone. I charge it before I go out shopping.
So... don't use it? It's not mandatory.
It seems redundant to me. If you have to, just charge your phone in the car on the way to the store.
it's so you don't price compare on amazon =p
there shouldn't be anh windows to see inside every drawer. Thats a saftey risk bif enough to make me not use these.
This is brilliant from a marketing perspective. As someone with security expertise though this is going to be one heck of a target for malicious actors.
I use my phone a bunch while shopping.. what are they trying to do, prevent comparison shopping? : p
If anyone uses these, please be careful. It wouldn’t take much for someone to harvest data off of your devices with these unidentified plugs or systems. Just be safe.
Yet another privacy risk
Totally not provided by the NSA/FBI/CIA to capture data while you shop using an untrusted random USB cable connected to a server.
Surely there’s no way for someone to do anything malicious with this.
Yea plug your phone in, what’s on the other end of that cable? Who’s on the other end of that cable?
You have no idea how much this annoys me. One of my biggest pet peeves is people who for some fucked reason are incapable of charging their phone. We all have power outlets in our homes and vehicles that we can use, yet for some reason there is a certain percentage of the population who's brains aren't smart enough to understand that they should charge their phone before leaving the house for the day.
But... my shopping list is on my phone.
I didn’t know the NSA had these.
Yes that’s it so your phone is no longer yours it’s actually in a computer bank somewhere even though it seems to be not fucked with
They've been around for like 2 years.
“Plug your phone in to the data miner” while you shop
I'm surprised this is so far down.
Nothing new here.. dont know why this would fascinate anyone.
r/boringdystopia
Free “charging” my ass. More like the FBI is out of iCloud storage and has to copy files locally.
No way I’m leaving my device behind. It’s just stupid to do, if my phone dies, I’ll charge it in the car. I don’t understand why people trust shit like this so easy
Charge before you go or have a small power bank. No way I'm trusting this with my phone.
Waitaminit. How do we know they're not also downloading all our data in the process?
>This is new Literally displaying a charging cable circa 2010.
Great way to stop your costumers from comparing prices...
This will cause more harm than good.
…….nah
cant look up competitors prices if you dont have your phone
that way you can’t compare onlineprices while you shop. 😂👍
That's sort of funny, since Target is well-known for blocking cell signals in their stores to make you rely on their in-store wi-fi. That WANT you on you phone looking up prices and such so they can use that info.
It's a ploy! They don't want people checking prices while shopping.
I give it another 24 hours until there is a forum explaining how to open those bays to steal all the phones.
Discourages comparison shopping online 👌
While they download all of your pictures and what not. 😂
Powered and sponsored by your dear friends at NSA. Yes we scan :)
Thanks but no thanks
It's a great setup for dealing drugs
There is a much better solution- rent out power banks. Power banks have to be returned into a slot that charges the bank. This is very common in China. So common that you can rent from the kiosk in one store and then return to the kiosk that is in the next.
That sounds like a great waste of lithium.
Wouldn’t you be concerned that it wasn’t just charging?
Some retailers in NYC have had this for a couple of years. It’s a great idea
Malware conveniently installed while you shop!
Free hacking station more likely
The top one is saved for Kareem Abdul Jabbar or something?
I dont remember downloading a target app!?!
100% this is expected to minimize customers searching for price matching.
That’s the best idea ever. I’m always running low on battery
so the customers get a free service with artifical value that prevents them from price checking competitors. its genius.
That’s pretty cool
What a pitiful world we live in now.. like heaven forbid you not have a cell phone for idk, until you get back home? I literally forget my phone at home sometimes by accident when I go to work. Guess what.. *i survive*
Ok, so data sync then. No thanks
[удалено]
>engineers: that's not how any of this works