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Australian Malls To Track Shoppers By Their Phones
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."
...Australian shops are so overpriced that it's getting to the point where they're not going to have any customers to track.
worldmobilenet.com -- World Prepaid Wireless Internet plans
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.
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 the store everyday for a week, but came in the store after the price cuts were indicated in the store window). Finally, if the tracker is installed at multiple stores, it will note if the same person browses at one store and purchases at another (e.g. finds product at the full price store in Manhattan, but buys at the outlet shop in Paramus).
This isn't really that new, just a new approach to more targeted marketing. Retailers have been counting you as you walk through the door, collecting your name, address, and purchasing habits for years. Some customers even volunteer their information by signing up for club cards and rewards cards.
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.)
Indeed, a citation is needed. Fuck the "struggling retail sector", you don't track me unless you're in possession of a warrant.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
"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).
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
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.
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.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
"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
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
http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
I'll put money on it being chermside - they are installing the electronic car gates and charging for parking over the coming months. They are going to want to measure exactly the changes in shopper behaviour as they increase the parking costs so they can see how far they can charge before people baulk.