Australian Malls To Track Shoppers By Their Phones 236
Fluffeh writes "Australian shopping centers will monitor customers' mobile phones to track how often they visit, which stores they like and how long they stay. One unnamed Queensland shopping center is next month due to become the first in the nation to install receivers that detect unique mobile phone radio frequency codes to pinpoint location within two meters."
Surveilance society anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Great, thanks. Now I know next time I go shopping in Oz I will pop the battery out of my phone.
WTF is up with companies these days who think they can track everywhere you go and everything you do? If this is not privacy invasion, I don't know what is. Pretty soon every child born will get their global tracking implant right after birth so they can be tracked throughout their life.
Please repeat, 1984 is NOT an instruction manual.
Re:From TFA (Score:4, Insightful)
"Ms Baddeley said mobile phone monitoring, already operating in the UK and US, would help the struggling retail sector develop marketing campaigns and identify the best mix of shops in centres."
The retail sector is struggling because I can buy almost everything cheaper from overseas as long as the AUD is above ~0.75 USD. It's currently over 1.00 USD.
The last person who suggested they reduce prices to be competitive was beaten to death by the Duopoly of Coles/Myer and Woolsworth. Then the corpse was kicked by Gerry Harvey (who seems to enjoy beating dead horses).
go away unwanted American culture (Score:2, Insightful)
He says on an American website.
Re:Good luck... (Score:2, Insightful)
WTF has that got to do with culture?? ll made in China as far as I can see, what was your point?
Re:Good luck... (Score:4, Insightful)
So it's cheaper to get them from Europe than from the US? That's a surprise.
My experience of trying to import electronics from the US into the UK is that very few online shops in the US seem to ship outside of North America, whereas the online shops in Europe tend to be happy to ship to anywhere in the world.
Re:go away unwanted American culture (Score:0, Insightful)
He is referencing a US custom that really has no place in most other countries(doesnt mean the US shouldnt). They also try and import it here(The Netherlands) for quite some time already. It really is annoying. It would be the same as us trying to export Sinterklaas or Koninginnendag to the US.
Re:Surveilance society anyone? (Score:4, Insightful)
In a small community where everybody knew everybody else a storekeeper could already see who was coming into their store, who bought what and who walked past and when.
And if you didn't want him gossiping with your neighbours about your shopping habits, you could always go to the next town. Now the shopkeeper in the next town (who's never even met you) knows all about your preferences for honey, blue stockings, ribbed condoms, and 12-year-old Scotch before you get there.
So, no, it's not at all "coming back".
Re:Good luck... (Score:5, Insightful)
go away unwanted American culture
I have the opposite opinion than that of what appears to be the majority of my countrymen - please DON'T adopt our culture; make your own!
I've seen the Bahamas and now the Cayman Islands Americanize themselves - stop it! Not only are you shortchanging your heritage and customs, you're making your tourist destinations bland and boring. No one except culturally vapid, Jerry Springer-ized Americans want to spend $$$ traveling to a supposedly exotic destination only to find Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts on every corner, just like at home. I want to experience your world view, your culture, not a poor reflection of my own.
A friend of mine accompanied some of those culturally walled-off types on a trip to Scotland a few years ago. She was assured that they'd 'see and do everything'. She ended up being forced by her friends to stay in US chain hotels instead of B&Bs and eat in US chain restaurants instead of local pubs. No local culture, no interaction with non-service industry locals working for US companies, no difference from their normal lives. How boring!
Re:Good luck... (Score:4, Insightful)
Being in the US Navy I saw a lot of the Mediterranean and South American countries. I NEVER ate or stayed at anything that even resembled American culture. Guys would eat hamburgers for dinner in the mess hall on the ship, then go out on shore and hunt down a McDonald's. WTF?!?!