Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

2 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

  2. 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.)