A lawyer’s routine trip to Walmart turned into a privacy wake-up call when he received an unexpected email from the retail giant.
The message asking about his store visit raised questions about how companies track customer movements, even when no purchase is made.
Walmart Accused Of Being Creepy
In a viral video with more than 1.1 million views, lawyer John Graham (@attyjdgraham) shares his bewilderment after receiving an email from Walmart.
“How does Walmart know where I was two days ago?” Graham says in the TikTok. “I got an email from Walmart that was like, ‘Hey. Were you at this location two days ago?'”
The most puzzling part for Graham was that he hadn’t made any transactions that would explain how Walmart knew his whereabouts.
“I didn’t make any purchases at that Walmart on that date. And I made no Walmart purchases at all at any Walmart on that date,” he explains.
Graham admits he may have visited the store location in question. He explains that his family was sick, so he wanted to make warm apple cider.
“That’s a nice little treat when you’re sick because you can’t do hot cocoa because it messes with the sinuses, and the milk makes everything worse,” he says.
But, after searching, he found that the store was out of stock, so he left without making a purchase.
“I didn’t buy anything, and I didn’t sign in anywhere. So how the hell does Walmart know where I was?” he asks.
In his caption, Graham shared that the incident led him to turn off location services.
How Retailers Track Your Location
Walmart and other major retailers use multiple technologies to track customer movements inside their stores, even when shoppers don’t make a purchase or sign in to an app.
According to Walmart’s own Store Pilot Test Project documentation, when a customer’s Wi-Fi is enabled on their phone, the store may record the location of the mobile device as it moves through the store.
Walmart explains that mobile devices with Wi-Fi enabled announce their presence to nearby wireless networks by emitting a signal that includes a Media Access Control (MAC) address—a unique identifier for the device.
The company states this helps them “understand how the average customer shops.”
The Counter reported that new Walmart patents allow for additional tracking methods beyond Wi-Fi. The patents describe systems that could track shoppers through Bluetooth beacons if they’ve downloaded the app, Wi-Fi information if they log into the store’s network, or facial recognition through security camera systems.
One patent even describes coating store floors with invisible substances that rub off onto shopping cart wheels, allowing cameras at checkout to photograph the wheels and map a customer’s path through the store.
The Counter reports that Walmart analyzes about 200 billion rows of transactional information every couple of weeks, cross-referencing it with weather reports, social media trends, gas prices, and local events. The benefits for retailers include analyzing foot traffic patterns, optimizing store layouts, and placing high-margin products in strategic locations.
According to Walmart’s privacy policy, the company may collect technical information, including IP addresses, and combine personal and non-personal information from various sources. Customers can manage some tracking preferences through Walmart’s Privacy Preference Center, though the company’s extensive data collection capabilities suggest that full anonymity remains difficult to achieve.
@attyjdgraham Hey siri, turn off location services.
Commenters React
“But yet no one can find lost kids,” a top comment read.
“Wait until Insurance companies can get your grocery list and determine what kind of coverage they’ll give based on your eating habits,” a person said.
“Your phone interacted with the WiFi or Google analytics made the location information available for marketing purchase. If you have your phone, everyone with resources knows where you are, at all time,” another wrote.
“Brother you have no idea how deep this rabbit hole goes,” a commenter added.
BroBible reached out to Graham for comment via email and TikTok direct message and to Walmart via email.