Or at least it may have the means to do so. American market store chain Walmart has just patented a high-tech sound registration and analysis system specifically made with stores in mind. The objective of this system is to collect and recognize sound patterns in order to detect possible thefts – sounds like an item being hidden under the vest or comparing the number of cash register blips to the number of items put down on the counter. As nice as that sounds, such a system could easily be used in other, less innocent ways. You would think twice about talking in Walmart if you knew that a nearby gizmo registers everything you say, right? And Walmart employees would be pretty much terrorized into 100% proper behaviour 24/7. Thankfully, Walmart does not plan on implementing this system in the near future. As for far future – who knows.