Malls Track Shoppers' Cell Phones On Black Friday 198
antdude writes in with a story about two U.S. malls that plan on tracking shoppers' movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones this Friday. "The management company of both malls, Forest City Commercial Management, says personal data is not being tracked. 'We won't be looking at singular shoppers,' said Stephanie Shriver-Engdahl, vice president of digital strategy for Forest City. 'The system monitors patterns of movement. We can see, like migrating birds, where people are going to.' Still, the company is preemptively notifying customers by hanging small signs around the shopping centers. Consumers can opt out by turning off their phones."
This was covered in /. in 2008... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:opt out (Score:5, Informative)
Except Amazon's shit at it. They keep on trying to sell me stuff I've already bought from them. It's rare for me to want to buy the same DVD twice, despite what the MPAA wants (ie one copy of a DVD per person watching the movie)
Re:opt out (Score:4, Informative)
I'm not exactly sure which country you are from, but here in the U.S. a billboard is never a "sign. . . [that] doesn't do anything."
There are billboards that recognize your car and greet you personally:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/business/media/29cooper.html [nytimes.com]
There are billboards that aggregate the fm radio stations being listen to in passing cars the show the advert most likely to target the largest percentage of passing drivers:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/27/business/media-business-advertising-new-billboards-sample-radios-cars-go-then-adjust.html [nytimes.com]
Interactive advertising inundates our modern lives. You're individual concerns aren't worth as much as the advertising dollars spent on you. No one cares that you feel like your privacy is being trampled, you're a target demographic and consumer. That makes your interests important only if your spending money. Opting out only makes advertisers not care what your opinion is because you are a "fringe demographic".
On a personal note, I still hate interactive movie posters. Ever since I walked past a poster for Step-Brothers and Will Ferrel scarred the piss outta me by suddenly coming to life and badgering me to come see the movie.
Re:opt out (Score:4, Informative)
I think that I shall never see: A billboard lovely as a tree. Indeed, unless the billboards fall: I'll never see a tree at all.
-Ogden Nash