▲Convenient bee store. Figure/IC photo
When it comes to convenience bees, many people know that this is a new convenience store company. However, convenience bees officially claim that they are ostensibly a convenience chain, but they are actually a data company. After an investigation by southern weekend reporters, it was found that this was not the case. Convenience bees not only use the algorithm to the extreme, but also make the information data collection almost "pervasive".
Consumers think that the term "convenience bee" focuses on "convenience", while companies pay more attention to the characteristics of their "bee". The magic of bees is that they have both one eye and compound eyes, and even if they are motionless, they can "capture" the changes in the surrounding environment.
According to the report of Southern Weekend, as long as consumers enter the convenience bee, it is equivalent to entering the "capture" vision of the convenience bee, and every move will be collected and become the basis for systematic decision-making. Of course, there is no dead-end camera in the store, and the clerk will not be missed. The clerk who is supervised in real time must accept instructions from the system at any time, and if the shelf is found to be vacant, it will be alarmed, and as long as the alarm is called, it will be fined.
Of course, using algorithms for business is not the first of the convenience bees. It has gradually become a consensus that the use of algorithms for business can indeed effectively improve operational efficiency.
▲ The emphasis on data in the official propaganda of the convenience bee. Photo/ Screenshot of the official public account of the convenience bee
For example, convenience stores generally select products through the experience of store managers, while convenience bees are selected by capturing local consumers' consumption data on relevant e-commerce platforms, review data on various social platforms, and past sales data in other stores, putting them into formulas, calculating revenues, rankings, and then selecting products and determining the placement of goods. With this powerful system and algorithm, you can train a store manager in 6 months and a clerk in 5 days.
Algorithms are inseparable from the support of massive data. Since the convenience bee relies so much on algorithms, it must have a strong thirst for data information. The company has also demonstrated amazing expertise in data collection.
In the convenience bee, there is a kind of shooting called "sticker shooting", which really gives the person being photographed a close-up feeling. Before entering a city, the convenience bee must first carry out a round of carpet pasting, which is "pre-harvesting". After entering the city, there is also "new site collection", and after opening the store, there is also "special shooting" or retesting. According to the instructions of the headquarters, near the target store, the community, school, office building, training institutions, hospitals and government agencies within one square kilometer must be photographed.
The meticulous collection of convenient bee information can be seen from the details, entering the building to shoot water signs, entering the garage to count the number of parking. Most surprisingly, the convenience bee also has almost no scruples in the choice of subjects and shooting areas.
Southern Weekend reporters saw the information collection records of the "Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China" collected in the convenient bee background system. In addition, the Ministry of Communications, the National Tourism Administration, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the General Administration of Customs, and some central enterprises and banks are also among them.
Article 6 of the Measures for the Administration of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Image Information System clearly stipulates that image information in public areas outside the scope of the unit shall not be collected. Photo: Screenshot of the official website of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau
Convenience bees "fly around" in the flowers of information and collect wildly. There are about 100,000 videos similar to those captured in public areas in the Beijing area alone. These moves are already frantically testing on the verge of breaking the law. The "Beijing Municipal Measures for the Administration of Public Security Image Information System" clearly stipulates that image information in public areas outside the scope of the unit shall not be collected, and no other unit or individual may set up a public security image information system in that area. Units using public security image information systems shall file a record with the district or county public security organ where the unit is located. If it is violated, a fine will be imposed on the unit, the main person in charge, and the directly responsible personnel.
Convenience Bees strenuously denies the existence of "candid filming", using the cover of cooperating third-party companies and training employees to collect information. However, compared with the media reports, it is not difficult to find that these are all intended to cover up.
There is the most mysterious information collection department within the convenience bee, and a large number of IT personnel are invested around this department. Investing such a large cost, taking such a big risk, to collect information and data, of course, is not because of voyeurism, but to achieve so-called "automation". That is to say, strategy determines the organization, and the growth goal of the convenience bee determines the way it operates now.
How long the "spy" road of convenience bees can go depends to some extent on the choice of consumers. It is hard to imagine that consumers in convenience stores will like the feeling of being "scanned" in all directions when they enter the store, like a transparent person, after all, they are only here to buy a few bottles of drinks and a few bags of snacks, not to do CT.
Obviously, it is a convenience store company, but it is going to be a data company, and such a convenience bee may have chosen the wrong direction at the beginning.
To "use algorithms in business to replace people" as the goal, is not to build an unmanned supermarket? If such a business model can be fully rolled out, will it be the turn of the convenience bee to try? From this point of view, the convenience bee can only be "exhausted" in the end, and it has mistaken itself.
Enterprises in the Internet era inevitably have to contact and use algorithms and systems, and it is valuable to clarify boundaries, assume corporate responsibility and overcome dependence on algorithms.
Excessive collection of public information by enterprises and collection and use of user information without the consent of users will increase the risk of personal information being leaked or used in violation of regulations, which is not conducive to safeguarding the social public interest. For the sake of consumer personal information security and the dignity of employees, convenience bees should restrain their addiction to algorithms. Improving the internal system of the enterprise and strictly abiding by the bottom line of the law are the lessons that this enterprise should make up.
As for this kind of large-scale collection of citizens' personal information, whether it is illegal or not, the relevant departments may also wish to intervene and pay attention to it, or use flexible judicial methods such as interviews and risk reminders to correct the wrong behavior of enterprises.
Contributing Writer | Lin Zhong (Media Person)
Edit | Li Xiaoxiao
Proofreading | Wu Xingfa