You have recently been hired by a major department store in its marketing department. Your boss informs you that you are going to supervise a field research study. You arrive at the selected store in the chain and find out that the study consists of shadowing customers as they move around the store. The store has set up a "private" shopping event for store credit card holders. All who attend must swipe their card to receive the special discount coupon book. The shadow shoppers (who were hired by the store manager) are given handheld devices loaded with a specific customer's information and past purchase behavior.
Thus each shadow shopper knows the name, address, income, family size, and spending patterns for the customer she or he is observing. You begin to feel uncomfortable about this study since the consumers have no idea that they are being tracked or the level of confidential information about them that a stranger has access to. You are also concerned that the shadow customers are not regular employees or employees of an established marketing research provider. What if anything would or should you do about your concerns?