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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.
No, if you turn it off, it's off.
At least on every phone I've owned.
Gone!
Seriously, The Path Intelligence guys use, or at least got started using, the GNU Radio platform(which, incidentally, is really really cool and you ought to check out). http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/06/70933?currentPage=2 http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6124/1637/1600/path_intelligence.jpg http://handcircus.blogspot.com/2006/06/my-brother-in-wired.html
Now all we need is retinal/facial recognition and we'll have the perfectly offensive onslaught of advertisements available to us.
How did you like the last ad greeting you by name, John Anderton?
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
If the mall is going to use my equipment for their benefit, I should be warned before entering the premises. I see no mention on TFA about the mall warning its customers about the tracking system , besides looking for the antennas on the walls but those can easily be concealed. Maybe someone can come up with a device that changes IMEIs on the fly creating one man stampedes/mobs
The best test environment is production. - Me
chrome://browser/content/browser.xul
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.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Which customers? Which shopping centers? ALL OF THEM? Am I being tracked?
Put on your tin-foil hats everyone!
Sigs are for Terrorists.
Whenever I read big-brother type stuff like this, I'm reminded of one of the best lectures I received regarding the direction of IT (and this was years ago)
In speaking about GIS he outlined some items that seemed very spooky and seemingly improbable things that would happen - then he discussed the results of those things occurring as if they were a given. I was skeptical that they'd even happen, but they are beginning to... stuff like this article mentions, how it will be very close to impossible to travel without a cell phone, and how that would essentially mark you (not in the crazy 666 sense) for all kinds of crap people want to sell to you.
At the end, his point was that these types of things will be reviled in name only, but once people receive the benefits of the technology, they'll love it. We're headed down this path whether we like it or not; privacy will become a very relative thing in the next couple decades. We will need to rely exclusively on the good faith of the companies that guard our information.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
This is pretty cool. The website claims accuracy of 1-2 meters. If they indeed use triangulation, their equipment has to be able to measure time down to ~1/300 millionth of a second. BTW, chances are that tracking is anonymous. I don't believe phones transmit phone numbers or other private information unencrypted.
Since this article is about cell phone tracking, I thought I would mention a free GPS tracking service that we recently launched. It's called InstaMapper. There is a DIY that explains how to track a car in real-time using a $40 prepaid cell phone:
http://www.instamapper.com/diytracking.html
Under Section 5(1)(b) of the WT Act 1949 it is an offence if a person "otherwise than under the authority of a designated person, either:(i) uses any wireless telegraphy apparatus with intent to obtain information as to the contents, sender or addressee of any message whether sent by means of wireless telegraphy or not, of which neither the person using the apparatus nor a person on whose behalf he is acting is an intended recipient;
This means that it is illegal to listen to anything other than general reception transmissions unless you are either a licensed user of the frequencies in question or have been specifically authorized to do so by a designated person. A designated person means:
the Secretary of State;
the Commissioners of Customs and Excise; or
any other person designated for the purpose by regulations made by the Secretary of State.
Or:
(ii) except in the course of legal proceedings or for the purpose of any report thereof, discloses any information as to the contents, sender or addressee of any such message, being information which would not have come to his knowledge but for the use of wireless telegraphy apparatus by him or by another person."
This means that it is also illegal to tell a third party what you have heard.
With certain exceptions, it is an offence under Section 1 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 for a person - "intentionally and without lawful authority to intercept, at any place in the United Kingdom, any communication in the course of its transmission by means of:
a public postal service; or
a public telecommunication system."
It is similarly an offence to intercept any communication in the course of its transmission by means of a private telecommunication system.
According to Ofcom, scanners and monitoring radios can be legally sold, bought and used in the United Kingdom, without the need to obtain a license, provided they only receive radio services meant for general reception by the public. In the UK such services include Citizens' Band, Amateur, licensed broadcast radio, weather and navigation broadcasts.
It is only illegal to use scanners to listen to licensed private services such as the police and taxi radio transmissions and other prohibited or private broadcasts not intended for the public. Listening in on such broadcasts is an offence under Section 5(1) (b) of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949.
In order to help the public understand what it can and cannot listen to, Ofcom publishes a Radio Authority information sheet titled RA-169.
Anyone who intends to listen to radio transmissions should be aware of the following, it warns: A license is not required for a radio receiver as long as it is not capable of transmission according to The Wireless Telegraphy Apparatus (Receivers) (Exemption) Regulations 1989 (SI 1989 No 123). An exception to this is that it is an offense to listen to unlicensed broadcasters (pirate broadcasts) without a license and licenses are not issued for that purpose.
Although it is not illegal to sell, buy or own a scanning or other receiver in the UK, it must only be used to listen to transmissions meant for general reception - Amateur and Citizens' Band transmissions, licensed broadcast radio and weather and navigation broadcasts. It is an offence to use your scanner to listen to any other radio services unless you are authorized by a designated person to do so.
So possession of the equipment is allowed so long as it is not used to listen to prohibited communications in the UK.
http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/mtlaws_may04.html
There's no need to use a signal jammer. It's your very own phone. Maybe you've never heard of that concept, but mobile phones tend to have an option which has about the same effect on your own phone phone as a jammer, but without disturbing other people's phones: Just switch your phone off! As an added bonus, you'll also increase the battery life of your phone.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Lots of fun things you can imagine doing with this :)
... 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.
... no, wait, they didn't. Errr ... 50 people just appeared spaced in a grid around the parking lot! No, they've disappeared.
Gather as many cellphones as possible (from cooperating friends etc). Put them all in a small basket.
Have them visit for a while in
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
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Other things these systems could do include correlating phone IDs with missing big-ticket merchandise to identify possible shoplifters, or look for suspicious activity like repeated visits to rest rooms or other semi-private places by the same set of IDs. Combine it with video records and credit card records and you can get a fair amount of visitor identification without going to the phone company for tracing. Not enough to act, but enough to be useful to security personnel.
It's another step towards Brin's transparent society.
I don't have objections to it being done correctly. By correctly I would want the following issues to be addressed. 1. No attempts to find out who the cell phone belongs to. (No personally identifiable information). 2. The id number that the cell phone transmits is never stored in any way. The use of an internal identifying number would be acceptable as long as no link was made between the actual cell phone identification number and the internal id number is stored. 3. Every time you visit the mall you get a new internal id number. This would prevent getting information about repeat visits to the mall. My concerns about storing personally identifiable information stems from the government. The government would subpoena for the mall owners cell phone information and all sorts of fun would begin. Even if only a cell phone id number is stored it would be enough for the government to use as a starting point.
They will track you the best, because when the signal quality gets worse, your phone increases its own signal strength in order to keep the connection as long as possible.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
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...
Iam sure the cellphone companies will love to put a stop to a third party using their $billion privately licensed network infrastructure for commercial gain that they are not a part of.
Of course if ALL the cellphone companies have giving their blessings to recieve their frequencies then the legal threat is reduced, somehow from reading about their tech they dont have permssion.
i presume they have lawyers?, even a ham radio operator could tell you the laws on reception of signals, bottom line no permission, no reception or usage in any way at ALL
They intercept the IMEI number of the cell phone; the serial number of the hardware, not your personal telephone number. You could change the telephone number simply by unlocking the phone and inserting a new SIM card. But the IMEI never changes unless you got a new phone.
Like cable broadband networks, the actual data transferred for calls is encrypted, but the IMEI is not.
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Step 1: Buy pouch (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1305 $2.85 at the time of writing w/free shipping!)
Step 2: Put phone in pouch before entering mall
Step 3: Take phone out of pouch periodically to check text messages/make calls.
Step 4: Confuse system by having phone randomly appear for short intervals around the mall.
Step 5: ???
Step 6: Profit!
A cellphone which is turned off cannot be used to listen in on private conversations. The RF section is off (and you can verify this with a simple ammeter; the RF section draws significant power). Unless, of course, the FBI/CIA/NSA/MI5 has switched your cellphone out for a specially modified one which doesn't actually turn off.
You also need to read the news.com news article linked to from other comments here. The FBI was pretty clear in its statements.
Thank you for providing the counter-example of a swapped out cellphone -- that'd a good point. But I think they don't even need to do THAT.
And an iphone is not turned off when it's turned off -- Go read the slashdot article about the guy who got a $5000 bill when it was "turned off" while on a cruise. It still checks your email, it still transfers data. I could be wrong -- I don't have an iphone. Or a cellphone. I'm not an expert. But I do rememeber what I've read that makes me NOT want to get one.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
As a fun experiment, try placing your cellphone (turned on) next to an audio receiver, or television, or any other device that is susceptible to radio interference.
What you'll soon see is that the phone is causing interference (through transmissions) intermittently. For example, every few minutes you will hear slight buzzing from the speakers of your radio or television (and if it is a television you might see the picture go wavy, too).
This is a well-known phenomenon, so saying that phones do not broadcast when they are not in use is an error.
However, I'm not sure how this could be used for accurate tracking, since the broadcasts are only intermittent. You could go halfway across the store between broadcasts, which would make it a bit difficult to show your route I'd guess.
"Even easier than airplane mode, now with less fuss and bother, we bring you the cell phone jamming pouch! It's so simple, I believe even a blindfolded lab rat could figure out how to use it."
leaving your phone on in said pouch will turn it to 'high power transmit mode' which will kill the typical cell phones battery within an hour.
maybe you can disable this power draining feature in some phones, but i have not yet figured out how on my own phone.
BTW the best way to test your phone for if 'high power' mode is on is to stick it in a microwave oven, if it still gets bars after a minute, it's automatically going to 'high power mode' and yes, microwave ovens don't stop much microwave energy, they are considered safe, because people in the airforce have for years been standing much much closer to much much more powerful microwave generators for many hours at a time... in fact i've read that the first discovery of microwave energy for cooking was an accidentally melted chocolate bar, then intentionally popped popcorn, and finally an egg, which exploded.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
Well, there's CDMA2000 and whatever competes with it (WCDMA?), iDEN (Nextel), WiDEN, PCS, all of which are in common use in the US (I think Sprint is already CDMA2000). Analog and TDMA are dead in the US. None of them use IMEI, but they all have some kind of equipment serial number you could track. iDEN is proprietary, so you might have a patent issue there.
T-Mobile uses only GSM 900, 1800 and 1900 in the US, never 800. So, they'd need to cover all four frequency bands and all the current and near-future protocols.
I still maintain it's not practical to be doing TDOA tracking on all handsets in a medium to large size mall. Aside from multipath issues, everyone of the thousand or so people in a mall has their own handset, there's the regulatory aspect of this. It's illegal in the US to monitor the cellular bands, and this includes the data and control channels. The company would need to apply for permission from the FCC, and that would open up the debate.
You clearly have no idea of the technology involved, do you?
The phone only needs to wake up long enough to send one packet to some towers, then turn off. This is especially true in GSM-land; while Sprint and Verizon were able to specify phones with GPS in order to satisfy E911, this didn't really fly for the GSM providers, so they use TDOA - Timed Difference of Arrival. It works like GPS in reverse; the time it takes for the packet to travel from your phone to the towers is measured, at least two signals are compared and a little "magic" (we now call it "signals processing") thrown in, and they can get a pretty good fix.
All your phone has to do is wake up for a couple of seconds every minute and fire off a single ping, and that information can be used to track you. I know this technology is already in common use among GSM providers in the US; not sure about the other guys.
The ONLY reason that cellphones can't be used in the air is the havoc it would wreak on the cell network.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"