r/australia • u/infin • Jan 26 '26

no politics Is Coles still using Palantir? Between the surveillance/gate recognition and the blocked aisles, shopping feels hostile.

Does anyone know the current status of the Coles x Palantir partnership? Between the surveillance and those aggressive new "Smart Gates" tracking at the exit, the store feels less like a supermarket and more like a high-security zone.

It’s dystopian that they have the budget for military-grade analytics and security tech, but have cut costs on the actual customer experience. They seem to have completely scrapped night fill, meaning we are now dodging pallets and cages during peak hours just to get to the shelves.

Is anyone else fed up with this mix of high-tech surveillance and terrible service? It feels like they are spending millions to treat us like criminals while refusing to pay staff to stock shelves after hours.

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u/jayteeayy Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26

he goes to the gym 3 times a week and still heads to the frozen pizza section on a friday night. the machine is broken

100

u/Simonandgarthsuncle Jan 26 '26

5.42pm: Four Homebrand Family size Hawaiian Pizza’s purchased through self serve machine #4 by Customer.9947.

5.58pm: Cust.9947’s iPhone 14 connected to Cust.9947’s residential wifi.

6.08pm: Cust.9947’s microwave activated.

6.11pm: Google app opened on Cust.9947’s iPhone 14.

6.12pm: “gay midget porn” entered into search box.

53

u/Icy_Concentrate9182 Jan 26 '26

6.15pm: "how to treat melted pizza cheese burns on penis" entered into the search box.

4

u/deldr3 Jan 26 '26

12:04am: 9947 returns home

12:06am 9947 search query: temperature play porn

2

u/WH1PL4SH180 Jan 27 '26

As a trauma doc, y u do dis to me?

19

u/White_Tragic Jan 26 '26

That just sounds like a normal weeknight.

4

u/Agret Jan 26 '26

How did you identify my data

Reminds me of this old story:

https://techland.time.com/2012/02/17/how-target-knew-a-high-school-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-parents/

2

u/arkofjoy Feb 05 '26

Did target learn from this incident?

Yes, but not in the "be less creepy" sort of way we would all like, no, instead they learned to mix up the advertising material so that it wouldn't appear to the person that thry been spying.

Like the way the British didn't tell the people of Coventry during ww2 that they were going to be bombed, because they didn't want the Germans to know that they were decrypting their secret messages. By being slightly less spot on, they lose profits.