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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."

6 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.

    --
    worldmobilenet.com -- World Prepaid Wireless Internet plans
    1. 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.
    2. 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 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.)