Some shoppers waiting in checkout lines are so absorbed with smartphones that they become resistant to manipulation aimed at provoking impulse buying.

The article insults our intelligence by pretending that we are all suckers both for marketing and for portable phones. I don't know about you, but I resist them both pretty well. Nonetheless, I linked to the article because it has an interesting point about advertising.

Let's pass laws to ban retail stores (and hotels) from using computers from using sensors to recognize anything about their customers except that they are shoplifting, and from interfering in any way with communication to their computers. There is no reason these companies should be allowed to do whatever they wish to people.