20 May 2008
Shopping centre customers are having their movements monitored by a new type of surveillance that focuses on signals from their mobile phones. The technology details when people enter a shopping centre, what stores they visit, how long they remain there, and even where they walk.
The device does not have access to personal details about a person’s identity or contacts, but privacy campaigners are concerned about potential intrusion should the data fall into the wrong hands. The surveillance mechanism works by analysing the signals produced by mobile handsets and then locating the phone by triangulation, measuring the phone’s distance from three receivers.
Two shopping centres have already implemented the technology, on of these being Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth, and three more centres will begin using it next month. The company that makes the dishes, which measure 30cm square and are placed on walls around the shopping centres, said that they were useful to centres that wanted to learn more about the way their customers used the stores.
Results from the technology have already been found useful at Gunwharf Quays, revealing that 10,000 people were still in the store at 6pm, making a case for longer opening hours. Other results showed that the majority of customers who visited Gap also went to Next, which could useful for marketing purposes.
So far this technology is still in its early stages of implementation, although strong cases are already forming both for and against its existence.
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