From where does Google derive this information?

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John Gray
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From where does Google derive this information?

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While idly Googling for the opening times of my local large supermarket on today's "substitute Bank Holiday", I was reminded that it gives information about the purported busyness thereof at various times during the opening period.
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Tesco supermarket.jpg
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I am particularly interested in how they can determine how many people are there "now" (the Live bar in red).
Does anyone have any idea?
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John Gray

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HansV
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Re: From where does Google derive this information?

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Best wishes,
Hans

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John Gray
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Re: From where does Google derive this information?

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Thanks very much :clapping: - I never thought of Googling for this Google information! (reflexive? re-entrant?)
"To determine popular times, wait times, and visit duration, Google uses aggregated and anonymized data from users who have opted in to Google Location History."
I presume most people would regard this as a fairly benign and somewhat useful use of people-monitoring.
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Leif
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Re: From where does Google derive this information?

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Benign? Looks like the busy red line time betwo.
Leif

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Re: From where does Google derive this information?

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:groan: :hairout:
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ChrisGreaves
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Re: From where does Google derive this information?

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John Gray wrote:
03 Jan 2022, 14:45
I am particularly interested in how they can determine how many people are there "now" (the Live bar in red).
Does anyone have any idea?
Hi John.
The answer to your question must be, by definition, "Yes". :hello:
Cheers
Chris
(later) For mass data analysis, I would suppose that a tested function of any one of a set of data points would work

(a) Sliding-door openings (entry or exit or both) per unit time
(b) Air-Mile card swipes per unit time
(c) Cashier’s drawer openings per unit time
(d) Real-time dollars transacted per unit time
(e) Shopping-cart re- or un-chaining (where carts are monitored for theft etc) per unit time

Cheers
Chris
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HansV
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Re: From where does Google derive this information?

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Google might be omniscient, but I'm not sure they have access to data (a) to (e)...
Best wishes,
Hans

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Leif
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Re: From where does Google derive this information?

Post by Leif »

John Gray wrote:
03 Jan 2022, 15:01
I presume most people would regard this as a fairly benign and somewhat useful use of people-monitoring.
I have always assumed Google also monitors your mobility to be able to give fairly up-to-date traffic data, but I've never bother to look into it - I just appreciate that they do!
Leif

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Re: From where does Google derive this information?

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HansV wrote:
03 Jan 2022, 16:56
Google might be omniscient, but I'm not sure they have access to data (a) to (e)...
Hi Hans.
Why are you not sure? It seemed to me that everything on that list is able to be hooked up to a micro within the store, and hence to the chain's network.
Why knows what deal Foodland has with AirMiles, and what deals AirMiles has with the folks who purchase AirMiles data and ...

I know I sound (or am!) paranoid, but Airmiles is a strange beast. I learned last week that I get an airmile point just for having my airmiles card scanned! (Almost everything I buy has no airmiles - potatoes, onions, carrots etc).
Thirty years ago I belonged to Escarpment Biosphere and all 200 of us carried clone cards so that Escarpment Biosphere collected our dribbles of points and used it for projects. Checked again earlier this year. Yep. Not a problem.
It seems to me that Airmiles is keen to use "counts of cards presented" as a selling point to the places they would like to sign up.

Security systems are surely recording a "beep" when the door opens or closes?

Cheers
Chris
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Re: From where does Google derive this information?

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Yes, but does Airmiles share those data with Google?
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Re: From where does Google derive this information?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:
03 Jan 2022, 20:05
Yes, but does Airmiles share those data with Google?
Ah Hans! I might be might be omniscient, but I am not that omniscient!
Basically, I have no idea at all what goes on in the world anymore, but my contention theory was that I could see no reason why any number of events might be data points from which a reasonably accurate function might produce the appropriate counts.

Ooops! I see that my beard-trimmer has finished downloading the updates to my bread-mixer. Gotta run!

Cheers
Chris
P.S. Are you going to tell my learned friend that it's data rather than information, or will that lot fall, again, to me? :innocent: :innocent:
An expensive day out: Wallet and Grimace