Shopping Centers Track Customers Via Cell Phone Signals

oschobero writes "According an article from the Times, customers in shopping centers are having their every move tracked. Using cellphone signals, the system can tell when people enter the center, how long they stay in a particular shop, and what route each customer takes. The system works by monitoring the signals produced by mobile handsets and then locating the phone by triangulation." The particular tracking device described by the article is made by an English company called Path Intelligence.

Re:Walk randomly.

[MrEricSir]

Instead of walking, we could get a bunch of Roombas and glue cell phones to them.

That should take care of their system. And their floors.

So vague...

[oskard]

customers in shopping centers are having their every move tracked.

Which customers? Which shopping centers? ALL OF THEM? Am I being tracked?

Put on your tin-foil hats everyone!

Re:Turn off the phone?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are convinced that turning off a phone won't help, the odds are that taking out the battery isn't going to calm you down either. Just leave the phone at home. Or better yet, get another phone as a decoy. Of course, that isn't going to help with all those implants that the government has putting in us.

Or, you could always take your cell phone and put it in a nice metal screen bag.

public pranks possible

[timothy]

Lots of fun things you can imagine doing with this :)

Gather as many cellphones as possible (from cooperating friends etc). Put them all in a small basket.

Have them visit for a while in ... the dressing room at Victoria's Secret / Stall 3 in the bathroom at Baskin Robbins / the service elevator in any place you can find with a service elevator.

Or just have people do a lot of trading, so person A keeps visiting place 3, over and over and over. (Also works with grocery loyalty oath cards.)

Have a massive "appearance" / "disappearance" fest. Hey! 50 people just appeared inside Best Buy! No ... no, wait, they didn't. Errr ... 50 people just appeared spaced in a grid around the parking lot! No, they've disappeared.

timothy

so, I want help...

[wherrera]

Okay, fine, so now I want to use SMS to send my shopping list to the mall, and get in return directions to the aisle and row of the widget I want, with the price displayed on the map on my phone of the mall, with directions if I ask, so I can decide which of two competing stores to go to. Better still, I would not mind if the the higher priced store might offer me a deal when they see me entering their competitor's shop. And no colluding on price, please, I will go to another mall...

We're Mall Security, and we say...

[Anonymous Coward]

> look for suspicious activity like repeated visits to rest rooms

Either you're a terrorist or you've got the runs, and we're not taking chances!

that being said

[ClioCJS]

I'm going to mentally meta-moderate your mental moderation of my post as flamebait as "unfair". At worst, it was redundant, because I noticed after posting it that several other people also pointed out the very valid, relevant, non-flamebait point that cellphones can be listened in on even when not making a call.

Alternatively...

[monktus]

1) Buy monkeys and tiny backpacks
2) ???
3) Profit!

Actually, number 2 should perhaps be "Invest in iRobot Corporation." After all, monkeys don't clean up after themselves.

Re:Walk randomly.

[nfk]

I think that will screw with your shopping more than it will screw with their data.

Re:Who are they fooling?

[Stuart Gibson]

I've often wondered about this (and most forms of advertising), but are geeks generally immune to this sort of thing. If I need something from a supermarket I will take the most direct route to the item and the most direct route to the till. I basically never buy anything not already on the agenda (though I may detour to the DVD section because the supermarkets often have stupidly cheap bargains) and NEVER browse. My wife is the opposite, she'll go for a loaf of bread and come out with a half dozen carrier bags and will take 45 minutes to do it.

Is my way an intrinsic part of being logical of thought?

Re:Turn off the phone?

[kesuki]

"Or, you could always take your cell phone and put it in a nice metal screen bag."

You Trust 'metal screen bags' really stop the signals? no, the phone itself detects that it's in a 'screen' bag, by the distortion of the mesh and tells the user it is off, if you truly want to build a Faraday cage, use solid sheets of Lead, as a close second use aluminum as always the thicker the better, to truly shield from all lower magnetic spectrum at least 18 gauge lead shielding should be used, to protect from the highest energy particles, you need at least 2 feet of lead, to stop the easily producible high energy particles, to stop the really rare types of high energy particles, you need a theoretical thickness of one light year of lead, but if you believe science journals, these ultra high energy particles are so rare, that the only place they can be detected is several miles underground (like cheyenne mountain) and supposedly they are almost impossible to produce, but thats IF you believe science journals. of course the real truth is that cheyenne mountain is where it is because they can easily detect the signals from all the implants more easily there, where other frequencies of electromagnetic spectrum are blocked by the natural rock formation.

since you need a theoretical thickness of one light year of lead to stop the really high energy particle transmissions by the implants, the only solution is to replace the working implant with a forgery replacement that tells them all the mind control is working, then you must be very very careful, to keep up the guise as a mind controlled member of the masses.

since the implant is based on nanotechnology, and was first brought to us by a time traveler from the year 3024 there is little hope of building your own mind control implant, fortunately the underground resistance was able to gain a few operatives in the 1940s when the implants were first being embedded in the masses, if you're lucky they will find you and choose you to receive a false implant.

If it wasn't for the underground they wouldn't have had 2006 to worry about... if you don't know what happened in 2006, then you are a fool, you don't think fuel prices went up because 'they' could no longer create an artificially low price in an attempt to use up all the energy resources of the resistance in 3024

well i've said too much and i know they know i know, but i am technically diagnosed 'paranoid schizophrenic' because of the hack to my implant in 2006, perhaps posting this will speed up my being firmly declared as such and eligible for disability.

or maybe they'll move to put me on the stronger medicines they use to keep known resistors in a hallucinogenic haze. I don't know, they put me on the weaker meds because i figured out to keep silent on what i knew in person, but those stronger meds do leave you in a haze, and they like putting people on it, when their mind control implants are hijacked or fail for a short while.

FWIW yes i take my medication, but even my doctor has told me that 'the level of meds I'm on now, will do little for paranoid thoughts' the med i was on before this wasn't even strong enough for me to not get hijacked for a 2 day period, after which a doctor took me off my medications, the underground wanted to use me, through mind control, but the blackouts associated with complete hijack (the normal mode is 'forgetfulness' 'random cravings' etc etc, the more subtle the easier you are led)

so many people buy 'solar' energy products that contain a battery that is charged by day time, running a low power LED light, Ironically because of the battery and cost of the solar panels far more energy is used than just hardwiring real led night lights... by almost 10 fold... wile also eating up the silicon of the type used to make solar panels. at all costs they will manipulate us to use up the energy so desperately needed in 3024.

Re:Hello John Anderton

[Anonymous Coward]

What if you'd just bought them [strawberry-flavored condoms] for a posh wank?

(Insert picture here of cheese-grater here, surround with black border, center caption with serif font, to create a motivational picture entitled...)

MASTURBATION
You're Doing It Wrong.

Re:So vague...

[fishbowl]

Mine has an "off" switch. I'm even able to turn mine off in the theatre and concert hall.
I wish other phones had this feature, but it seems to be rare.