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Australian Malls To Track Shoppers By Their Phones

Posted by samzenpus on from the dial-S-for-shopping dept.

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."

11 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Good luck... by __Paul__ · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...Australian shops are so overpriced that it's getting to the point where they're not going to have any customers to track.

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    worldmobilenet.com -- World Prepaid Wireless Internet plans
    1. Re:Good luck... by labnet · · Score: 3, 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)

      --
      46137
    2. Re:Good luck... by FireFury03 · · Score: 3, 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.

      --
      http://blog.nexusuk.org
    3. Re:Good luck... by Muad'Dave · · Score: 4, 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!

      --
      Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
    4. Re:Good luck... by Frenzied+Apathy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I echo this.

      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?!?!

      --
      The cake is a lie.
  2. Surveilance society anyone? by cbope · · 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.

    1. Re:Surveilance society anyone? by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 3, 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".

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    2. Re:Surveilance society anyone? by bennomatic · · Score: 4, Funny

      I will pop the battery out of my phone.

      I have an iPhone, you insensitive clod!

      --
      The CB App. What's your 20?
  3. Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act by bool2 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    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) 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.

    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.)

  4. Re:From TFA by mjwx · · Score: 3, 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).

    --
    Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  5. Re:Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Ac by devent · · Score: 3, 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

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