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."
Good luck... (Score:5, Informative)
...Australian shops are so overpriced that it's getting to the point where they're not going to have any customers to track.
Re:Good luck... (Score:4, Interesting)
...Australian shops are so overpriced that it's getting to the point where they're not going to have any customers to track.
Amen to that.
We were quoted $8k for 2 Siemens Wall Ovens.
UK Retail Price $3.2k
What did we do? Paid the $3.2k + $800 costs to import them!
Globalisation is a disruptive force!
(BTW Australians call them shopping centres, not Malls)
(BBTW Have seen our supermarkets stocking halloween stuff... go away unwanted American culture)
go away unwanted American culture (Score:2, Insightful)
He says on an American website.
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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.
It's double strange considering that it's summer time, usually quite warm, and daylight savings means all the trick-or-treating happens before it gets dark.
Just like Christmas in the sweltering midsummer heat with fake snow, tinsel covered pine trees, snow sleighs, and the poor bastards who end up with heat stroke while dressing up as Santa - all while Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer are piped through the shopping centre music systems.
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It's double strange considering that it's summer time, usually quite warm, and daylight savings means all the trick-or-treating happens before it gets dark.
Just like Christmas in the sweltering midsummer heat with fake snow, tinsel covered pine trees, snow sleighs, and the poor bastards who end up with heat stroke while dressing up as Santa - all while Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer are piped through the shopping centre music systems.
I thought hitting the beach to the sounds of "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" was an essential part of the Australian experience.... (maybe the singer really meant white sand?)
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 $$$ traveling to a supposedly exotic destination only to find Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts on every corner, just like at home. I want to experience your world view, your culture, not a poor reflection of my own.
A friend of mine accompanied some of those culturally walled-off types on a trip to Scotland a few years ago. She was assured that they'd 'see and do everything'. She ended up being forced by her friends to stay in US chain hotels instead of B&Bs and eat in US chain restaurants instead of local pubs. No local culture, no interaction with non-service industry locals working for US companies, no difference from their normal lives. How boring!
Re:Good luck... (Score:4, Insightful)
Being in the US Navy I saw a lot of the Mediterranean and South American countries. I NEVER ate or stayed at anything that even resembled American culture. Guys would eat hamburgers for dinner in the mess hall on the ship, then go out on shore and hunt down a McDonald's. WTF?!?!
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I have the opposite opinion than that of what appears to be the majority of my countrymen - please DON'T adopt our culture; make your own!
I've seen the Bahamas and now the Cayman Islands Americanize themselves - stop it! Not only are you shortchanging your heritage and customs, you're making your tourist destinations bland and boring. No one except culturally vapid, Jerry Springer-ized Americans want to spend $$$ 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.
If only I had mod points.
The fact that everyone is different and most of us can get along despite that is why I love to travel. I've had some of the most interesting discussions of my life in random bars halfway around the world because the difference in culture gave such varied opinions. When I go to another country I go to see that country, not my own, otherwise I could just save the money and stay at home.
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While I mostly agree, I am happy for the opportunity to hit the emergency brake and find a McDonalds when the local cuisine is creating havoc on my system. If I'm not feeling well then none of the other cultural or other experiences make fun. But if McDonalds is their choice on day one, get better friends...
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WTF has that got to do with culture?? ll made in China as far as I can see, what was your point?
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Oh, by the way, don't forget to toss any modern cellphone you have, Apple/Google/Microsoft/WebOS, what country did they come from again?
China.
Xie xie.
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Oh, by the way, don't forget to toss any modern cellphone you have, Apple/Google/Microsoft/WebOS, what country did they come from again?
Oh, and don't forget to thank the Aussies for creating WiFi that actually makes all that stuff usefull.
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Glad you don't want our American Culture. Oh, by the way, don't forget to toss any modern cellphone you have, Apple/Google/Microsoft/WebOS, what country did they come from again?
Just hope you don't like Chinese restaurant. I heard being a communist is not so popular in the US.
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And if he wants to tie products to culture, I hope he can afford to live without any Chinese manufacturing. No Apple products or cheap Harbor Freight tools, in fact most computers would be off-limits.
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Wow you put your name to that thing no purpose? You failed to differentiate culture from technology.
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So what're you going to do about it?
Walk across the border to New Zealand?
Stop buying stuff and starve to death?
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Umm... no. Anyone with any sense knows they can buy electronic items cheaper from overseas and have them shipped in.
As for food ... it's almost always cheaper to buy fresh food from local markets than it is to buy it from the supermarkets.
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So what're you going to do about it? Walk across the border to New Zealand?
It's a long walk to New Zealand. Hope you can hold your breath.
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So it's cheaper to get them from Europe than from the US? That's a surprise.
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.
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My 2 cents are that UK can be pretty stiff into exporting to the rest of EU too - not so much with books, but it is almost impossible to get anything BUT a book from amazon.co.uk.
On the other hand, amazon.de seems to be shipping whatever you ask, and they have pretty sweet deals in electronics too, plus they ship all over EU. Laptops can be easily bought this way, for example, and a host of more specialized electronic components from other (non-amazon) under very fair pricing and shipped globally.
Some US s
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Don't you also have an issue with incompatible power supplies? Australian supply is typically around 240V/50Hz, same as the UK, whereas I understand power in the US is supplied at 120V/60Hz.
If there's any electronic kit around that still doesn't have multi-voltage power supplies, I really don't want it...
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So how do you power your desktop PC?
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So how do you power your desktop PC?
By plugging it into mains power... Every desktop PC, laptop, printer, monitor, etc. I've purchased in about the past 10 years has had a multivoltage PSU (plug it in to pretty much anything between 100-250vac at 50-60Hz and it Just Works). Most desktop PCs purchased over 10 years ago had a manually switchable PSU (little voltage selector switch on the back) although admittedly monitors and laptops frequently didn't.
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In the US they have to pay the Apple tax for having an i in the name.
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It might also be for technical reasons. Australia appears to be on 230v, like Europe unlike the retarded US's (and Canada following suit) 110v
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.
Not Unique to Australia (Score:2, Interesting)
This isn't strictly an Australian thing, so you'll need to just get rid of the phone. A prominent, international retailer that I work with is using a service similar to this now. It tracks the unique addresses of the phones of the people in the store as well as the ones just outside of the store. It helps to measure conversion percentages (e.g. how many people that walk in the store actually buy something) and could be used to give an indicator of store front appeal (e.g. phone ID xxx has been walking by
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Personally, the clubs don't bother me. If they want to know what I buy and when I buy it so they can give me more targeted deals and serve me better, I'm all for it. It's directly related to my business with their store and I see no privacy concern with them knowing their clients. When a mall starts doing wholesale tracking of individuals and not relying on a voluntary system of tracking business transactions, that is certainly a bridge too far.
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This just demonstrates how invasive and generally crap marketing is.
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It's enough to just turn on 'flight mode'.
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So get a land line with a really long extension cable!
I don't meant to trivialize what you're saying, but there is a price that you have to pay if you want the toys. Unfortunately, it is a price that is both inherent in existing technology and it cannot simply be legislated away. (Marketers can be a slimy lot and some will ignore the law.) So it is probably best to let people know about the potential uses and let them decide if they want to turn it off when it is not needed.
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I quote "but there is a price that you have to pay if you want the toys."
Ahem. ...
THOSE TOYS ARE NOT FREE! You have to pay for them to obtain them, it's not like google services or facebook that are "paid" with your user data.
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It's not really your "privacy" though. You sacrificed that the moment you got a mobile phone - they must periodically announce their presence in order for the local cell to be able to route calls to you. If you shouted "HELLO! I'M WATTOS!" every five minutes, you wouldn't contend that you were preserving your privacy. The telco has always been able to place the cell your phone is in, and if they make a special effort, much closer by triangulating cell towers.
I had a radio pager for a long while. I could sti
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The difference is that this system has much better accuracy. Telcos can only track you if you are calling someone for 5-10 minutes.
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It's not really your "privacy" though. You sacrificed that the moment you got a mobile phone
Actually, you sacrificed it as soon as you showed your face. 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. As communities got larger and more anonymous that was temporarily lost, but now with technology like this (and it probably won't be long until they are doing it with CCTV and face recognition) it's coming back.
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".
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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.
Actually, he won't have a clue. As far as I understand it, this system just tracks a cell phone's frequency slot. The moment you enter another cell tower's area your frequency will change with no way of tracking it and if you come back you'll have a different frequency slot. It only works for mapping out the path that cell phone took through your mall, very little else. But that wouldn't be sensationalist enough.
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Actually, I did not sacrifice my rights to privacy when I got a mobile phone. The telco has a need to know where I, or more precisely my phone, is located, in order to provide service to me as a customer. My contract with the phone company gives me a reasonable expectation of privacy (note the word: reasonable). I do not expect them to share my location data without my explicit consent.
I do not consent to a 3rd party using my phone as a tracking device without my permission or knowledge. As the mall has pro
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It would be nice to be able to configure your phone to refuse to connect to certain microcells, such as those used in stores. I doubt phone carriers would sell a phone with that capability though. Its not really in their interest to do that.
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As the mall has provided me no contract with which to agree or disagree, they do not have the right to know where I am by tracking my mobile phone movements within the premises, regardless of their motives.
Then stop broadcasting it. Or does that argument only apply to SSID-broadcasting open routers?
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Only if they add randomness to the encryption; otherwise the encrypted ID will be as constant and therefore as identifying as the unencrypted one.
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I was referring to it being easier than taking out the battery.
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As much as I agree with you about the privacy invasion, in Australia shopping centres are private property and pretty much everything is at their discretion. If they want to track you on the way through the door, well you're in their house so it's their prerogative.
Not that that is right, just that it is.
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Shopping centres are still considered Public Places though. Operators of shopping centres dont have as much freedom to act as I do in my home.
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No they aren't. According to Australian Law they are completely private and the owners have every right as you do in your own home including kicking you out for no reason what so ever. Same applies to anything basically not owned by the government including stadiums, train stations where run by private enterprises and even Southbank in Brisbane which much of the population doesn't realise is not a government funded public park but a private run enterprise.
But your view is quite typical in Australia. People
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Prominent signs should notify and seek consent from customers, he said.
Taking this to the letter implies that there is a way to opt out from the service... "I don't want to be tracked, please do not track this phone". Yet somehow I think that is wishful thinking, and the only way to opt out would be to switch off that phone (not that bad an idea anyway, I do it quite often), or to stay out of the malls (I already only to malls if I really have to, not as "entertainment" what many people do - particularly here in Hong Kong malls are considered a good destination for going
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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.
We're so beyond the concept of "privacy invasion" in this world that it is almost laughable trying to think how we could even remotely get back to a shadow of that definition without causing global collapse. How many companies today solely exist to thrive on gathering, buying, or selling your "privacy" data?
Hell, Google built an empire just indexing it all.
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Re:Surveilance society anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
I will pop the battery out of my phone.
I have an iPhone, you insensitive clod!
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WTF is up with companies these days who think they can track everywhere you go and everything you do?
What ever happened to "no expectation of privacy in public" or other such slogans? Or does that only apply to police and other public servants?
(real question, not troll, though I will be modded as such for abandoning the /. groupthink)
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I understand 1984 was banned in Soviet Russia, but required reading for party officials
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Seems like turning your phone off might be a good idea in general these days. The constant tracking was one thing, but now this? The cons of having your phone on are starting to outweigh the pros IMO.
If you're lucky enough to live in an area with good data coverage and plenty of unsecured wifi points, a good way to do to this might be to get an account from a SIP provider and set your cell's unreachable forward to go to the SIP number. That way when you turn your cell modem off calls will be forwarded to yo
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We don't want to be tracked but still want to be able to talk to people; which is why people carry phones in the first place.
From TFA (Score:2)
I'd love to know where, so I can avoid the places like the fucking plague.
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Indeed, a citation is needed. Fuck the "struggling retail sector", you don't track me unless you're in possession of a warrant.
I read a few days ago that the retailer space is private property?
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).
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So a horse suggested that retailers should reduce prices? Australia is stranger than I thought.
Mate, no human is willing to staff their boards.
Little known fact, BHP is run by a Wombat.
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So a horse suggested that retailers should reduce prices? Australia is stranger than I thought.
Mate, no human is willing to staff their boards.
Little known fact, BHP is run by a Wombat.
Was... rumors have it that now a drop bear is at the helm.
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Mate, no human is willing to staff their boards.
Little known fact, BHP is run by a Wombat.
Was... rumors have it that now a drop bear is at the helm.
Hoop snakes are running Rio, when will the madness end?
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..against the law in the UK and USA ... and so not already operating
Seriously, this is cheaper than asking people ...? No this is a way of selling expensive technology to struggling retailers to do something that can give then no more than less obtrusive methods
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But that would require spending money on staff who are capable of providing good service and knowing your products, by hiring competent people then training them. That is a big no-no as far as businesses who seek to maximize profits by minimizing expenses (i.e. working people) and maximizing revenues (i.e. consumers) are concerned.
Difference between this and cameras (Score:2)
Cameras have a hard time IDing people, but this technique will let the shop owners connect the data of multiple shoppings to one person.
Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act (Score:5, Interesting)
Section 7 - Telecommunications not to be intercepted
A person shall not:
a communication passing over a telecommunications system.
This seems like a pretty clear violation to me. (note, that even though it is data traffic between the phone and the cell and not voice, it still violates the above.)
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If you had read even the summary you would have known that they do not violate that provision.
They're tracking phones, no more no less. Just tracking where a phone is, using the radio signals sent by the phone. They don't listen to what the communication is, just keep track of where the signal comes from, and as such where the phone is. It's not even necessary for people to talk on the phone, just having it on is all they need for this.
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From the article:
One unnamed Queensland shopping centre is next month due to become the first in the nation to fit receivers that detect unique mobile phone radio frequency codes to pinpoint location within two metres.
how do they know the radio frequency codes without actually reading the signal? Communication in this sense means the phone signal, not the actual talking on the phone. It doesnt matter whether you are actually talking on the phone.
Re:Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Ac (Score:4, Informative)
That's why /.'s rating system is for the ass. Why his score is 1 and not +5?
Anyway, even if you do not read the signals from the phone, it is intercepting anyway. You have to receive the signals from the phone somehow to get the position, so it is intercepting. There is also a definition of all terms used.
"communication" includes conversation and a message, and any part of a conversation or message, whether:
(a) in the form of: (i) speech, music or other sounds;(ii) data;(iii) text;(iv) visual images, whether or not animated; or (v) signals; or (b) in any other form or in any combination of forms.
So just a signal is a communication passing over a telecommunications system as defined by law. It is not necessary that the signal is decoded.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/taaa1979410/s7.html [austlii.edu.au]
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"telecommunications network" means a system, or series of systems, for carrying communications by means of guided or unguided electromagnetic energy or both, but does not include a system, or series of systems, for carrying communications solely by means of radiocommunication."
(my emphasis)
Source: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/taaa1979410/s5.html#telecommunications_network [austlii.edu.au]
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Section 7 - Telecommunications not to be intercepted
A person shall not:
(a) intercept;
(b) authorize, suffer or permit another person to intercept; or
(c) do any act or thing that will enable him or her or another person to intercept;
a communication passing over a telecommunications system.
Its a corporation that's intercepting communications, not a person.
You think corporations dont get special treatment under the law... what are you simple or something.
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In Australia, the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 explicitly prohibits this activity. Section 7 - Telecommunications not to be intercepted
A person shall not:
a communication passing over a telecommunications system.
A lawyer will argue that air (in which the radio waves travel inside the shopping center) is hardly a telecommunication system.
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Is it intercept? I bet the service is provided by the telecom, not intercept.
And is it communication?
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. (Score:2)
Federal Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim said the Privacy Act applied only if the information collected identified individuals.
Hmm, let's see if they qualify.
Path Intelligence national sales manager Kerry Baddeley stressed that no mobile phone user names or numbers could be accessed.
Sounds good so far
One unnamed Queensland shopping centre is next month due to become the first in the nation to fit receivers that detect unique mobile phone radio frequency codes to pinpoint location within two metres.
Hmm. That's close, but still doesn't identify you. Looks ok at this point.
It's much less intrusive or invasive than existing people-counting methods, for instance CCTV cameras and number plate monitoring.
Ahhhhhh, but when combining cell tracking (to 2 metres) and CCTV's, you are now tracking identified individuals!
rename "Airplane mode" "Shopping mode" (Score:2)
It seems to track IMEI numbers being broadcast by mobile phones.
Not PII (personally identifying info) unless they merge the data with mobile carrier's data, which I find unlikely (yes, that's my naÃvite making a rare showing).
I'm not sure this is worse than the cameras that they already use to track shoppers' movements, which coupled with facial recognition software could be more invasive.
However, I don't care for it and now have yet one more excuse to *not* go shopping at major retailers. Hopefully m
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They don't need to merge with carrier data to associate your IMEI with PII.
Presumably you go to a mall to shop. If you buy things with plastic, they can correlate purchase records with their IMEI snooping records. The more you shop there, the more they can correlate, until it's pretty close to 100% accurate.
If you buy a phone from a store in the mall.... they have an opportunity to really lock that one in.
If you have one of these new phones with Near Field Communications for buying things, I guess that's ju
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The IMEI is usually sent over an encrypted channel, after the CIPHERING MODE COMMAND has been sent in GSM (although the specifications do not mandate this).
It is not possible to track your long term movements. GSM and UMTS use what is known as the TMSI [wikipedia.org] - the Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity, which is a 32-bit temporary identifier which may not persist more than a few hours at a time.
Your IMSI (international mobile subscriber identity) is only ever sent over the air in clear text in 'recovery' situations
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Not a problem if we avoid shopping as a recreational activity.
When I go shopping for anything other than groceries, I take a list, buy what's on it, get the hell out. The GF hates taking me shopping.
I take pride in being a merchant's / marketer's worst nightmare (haven't wandered about in a retail shopping complex in *years* except Costco, where I buy ... groceries).
Main thrust of this & my original message:
Avoid shopping as a recreational activity.
Or at least set phone to Airplane Mode and maybe wear
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At last a voice of sanity.
Just buy what you want/need when you want/need it.
I've never understood this "OMG Advertisers will know all about me!" -- just because a marketer targets you with adverts you don't have to act on them. Adverts are an invitation to trade - not a direct order..
Personally speaking, I choose what I buy based on need,features and value for money; if I consider adverts at all, it's generally in a negative way (if they can afford to spend serious amounts subsidising TV, radio etc then t
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Another way of doing this is developing the highly advanced skill of walking out of a store if they don't have what you want.
Seriously, I do not understand this about people. They have something in mind that they want, so they go to a store. If they don't find that item (it is sold out, not sold there, or not exactly what the person wanted), they buy something else instead.
Sales people, of course, are trained to sell people anything, especially crap they don't need. You don't need a sales person for somethi
Just because you can ... (Score:2)
This goes for about anything you can think of, not just the invasion of privacy.
The unwashed masses don't understand (Score:2)
Having worked for telcos many years, I know there is no way to get detailed information from a cell phone without hacking it or getting the user to install a tracking app. I'm actually surprised that they even found a way to identify a phone by passively m
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If you pay by credit card, stores require a drivers license.
Smokescreen (Score:3)
None of this technical mumbo-jumbo is going on. The gov is hiring 'roos to track shoppers to lure them to secluded spots where the drop bears can mug them. And they haven't even gotten around to placing the eucalyptus tree bombs yet. Don't even mention the Commando Platypus Squads... shudder.
Why they do that? (Score:2)
I don't really get it why they invest millions in CCTV cameras, face recognitions, and now in tracking of mobile phones. I'm pretty sure it is not to get more customers to the most shopping centres.
Because if they wanted more customers, all they have to do is a) extend the opening time to up 10pm (I was in Sydney and it was a real surprise to me that most shopping centres close at 8pm or earlier. If you work up until 5pm, then you have 3 hours max. for the mall. Or like me who study until 4:30pm, then go ho
It's Spreading (Score:2)
Same story in the UK, in 2008 [slashdot.org]
How long before we get the slashdot story on a US mall trying this out?
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bet you it's a Westfield - probably Chermside...
+1 to Westfield. I'm surprised Gerry Harvey hasn't considered this.
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+1 to Westfield. I'm surprised Gerry Harvey hasn't considered this.
Gerry Harvey will rant about how all the overseas companies are screwing you for your info it on Today Tonight, then introduce his own version of the scheme two weeks later with great fanfare and Australian made stickers. Bogans everywhere will line up to buy a second phone, just to feel the love.
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Centro, though they are continually going bust. And whoever owns Chadstone.
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Whoever thought that introducing paid parking for all customers at a suburban shopping center (especially one like Chermside) was a GOOD idea should be fired.
The only exception to that rule is when car parks are being filled not with customers but with commuters treating the car park as a park-and-ride. And even then, the paid parking should only apply to people parking there all day (as opposed to people parking there for only a few hours whilst they do shopping)
If any shopping center tried to introduce pa
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It's not just smartphones. This can track any phone, presuming it's just snooping for IMEI numbers in GSM communications.
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I actually found myself wanting this installed in my house the other night. There was a robbery and assault at the end of the street. The police were canvassing for witnesses, and I hadn't seen anything but the aftermath, but he asked if I had CCTV (which I don't). It occurred to me that snooping the IMEI numbers of passing mobile phones was probably a lot more effective and unambiguous. I started having thoughts about combining one of those new open-source GSM stacks with a femtocell.
It's actually quite a
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Currently the records of mobile phones will give the Police a pretty good idea about what phones was in the area at the time; but unlike you, they have figured a couple of flaws with that:
1. Who says the perp has a mobile phone?
2. Even iff 1. how do you guarentee any records are actually correct? Sim card cloning, stolen phones etc.
Also, tracking people in public space is most likely violating heaps of laws (a supermarket / mall tracking whats going on within their own property is usually ok, since it's pri
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Wouldn't it be simpler to just switch your phone off?