Shopping centres follow mobile users
News brought to you by Skint Tariffs, providers of price comparison for cheap international calls. Shopping centres are turning to technology that allows them to follow mobile phone users through the building to determine how long shoppers spend in store.
Technology that uses signals sent out by mobile phones to triangulate people's position is being used to extract data about their shopping patterns at two shopping centres already and is set to expand into three more.
While personal details are safe from the technology privacy campaigners are concerned that the technology and the data could fall into the wrong hands.
The receivers set up around the shopping centres use the phones IMEI number to identify phones and it can tell which country the phone is registered in.
The Information Commissioners Office said that because it only identifies IMEI numbers the technology is not a big concern.
However a spokesman speaking to the Times added: "We would be very worried if this technology was used in connection with other systems that contain personal information, if the intention was to provide more detailed profiles about identifiable individuals and their shopping habits."
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