Movements of shoppers tracked by ‘1984’ phone technology

Published on Sunday 8 January 2012 00:00

Big shopping centres are watching how their customers shop by tracking the movements of their mobile phones, says Jane Bradley

IT IS the stuff which George Orwell warned of in his bestselling book 1984.

For unsuspecting shoppers who enter a shopping centre are now often tracked on a screen by retail staff – using their mobile phone signals to locate their path through the shops.

Many Scottish centres are using the technology – which has been adopted by property giant Land Securities, which owns a large number of major shopping centres and has installed the tracking devices in ten of them – as well as rival Hammerson, which operates the technology at the Silverburn shopping centre in Glasgow and plans to install at its Union Square development in Aberdeen this year.

The Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow, the Bon Accord and St Nicholas shopping centres in Aberdeen and Livingston’s The Centre are also among those north of the Border using FootPath, created by Path Intelligence, which is behind a range of technology to help shopping centre bosses plan their layouts.

Path Intelligence chief executive Sharon Biggar refused to admit whether the technology was even in use in Scotland for “data protection” reasons – although she did acknowledge that it was utilised in centres in the UK and six other countries around the world.

“We are not allowed to reveal the names of any of our clients because of data protection laws,” she told The Scotsman. However, while the company fiercely protects its paying clients, it does not give shoppers the same privacy.

The refusal to list where this technology is in use means that shoppers are unaware that they are being tracked – unless they spot the small signs alerting them to the practice. However, even if they do see the signs, there is no option for them to opt out of the scheme without turning off their mobile phones.

In centres where the technology is used, the sign warns that the centre “monitors the movement of mobile phones to help show us how the centre is used by its customers”.

But Ms Biggar insists that the practice does not intrude on shoppers’ privacy. “I want to reassure people that this is in no way an invasion of privacy and we cannot identify shoppers’ information,” she said.

“We cannot identify phone numbers or who an individual customer is. It is very much like watching dots walking around a room.

“We are very open with the public, we certainly want them to be aware that this is going on. We ask our clients to have signage up where the system is operating. The signs are exactly the same as the ones for CCTV and this is a standard size.”

She added: “We hold no personal information about any individual. You are not asked for consent when you shop online.”

But consumer groups believe that few customers will spot such signs – and are concerned that they have no right to withdraw from the scheme if they would like to do so.

“You are not asked if you want to be part of this,” said Nick Pickles, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch. “You are not asked whether you want to give someone right to track your movements.”

Rob Reid, policy officer at consumer watchdog Which?, said the process demonstrated a “real lack of transparency” for customers. “Consumers are not given any control,” he said. “There is simply not enough information for consumers that this is happening.”

He warned that while Path Intelligence pledges on its website that it will not use the anonymous data in conjunction with other information such as CCTV footage to re-identify the mobile users, that could change in the future.

“It is good that they are giving that voluntary reassurance at the moment, but if there is a great business case for them to do so in the future, there’s nothing to stop that happening.”

Emma Draper, of privacy advocacy group Privacy International, said: “Our main concern is that there is no opt-out option.

“There is this implication once you enter the centre, they have the right to track you.”

The technology uses the anonymous Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identifier (TMSI) – similar to an IP address on a computer – rather than the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI). which holds information about the individual’s mobile phone.

“However, even if the data does remain anonymous, it is more the principle of the matter,” she added.

A spokeswoman for Land Securities said: “We can confirm that we use FootPath, which is a system that maps mobile phone movements. At no time does it provide any personal information and at all times shoppers remain anonymous to us.

“The information is used to gauge visitor numbers, dwell time and the way in which the centre is used, which then helps us improve the mix of retailers, provide better service to meet shoppers needs and avoid the creation of bottlenecks by improving the layout and safety.”

Hammerson managing director of UK retail, Lawrence Hutchings, insisted the data captured was “completely anonymous”.

“The technology we are installing in our centres helps us to provide a better shopping experience for our customers,” he said. “We are able to see which areas are more popular or when there are busy periods in specific malls for example, enabling us to better plan facilities such as security and cleaning around peak times.

“If we have a better understanding how people shop, we can locate retailers in clusters, improving their sales and footfall and also making the visit to our centres easier and more enjoyable for shoppers.”

But other shopping centres, such as Braehead in Renfrewshire and the St James Centre in Edinburgh, do not use the technology – but refused to discuss why.

Braehead’s general manager, Peter Beagley, said: “We don’t employ mobile phone tracking to monitor customer movements in the shopping centre and there are no plans to use it.”

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BrentCross

Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 03:57 PM

These systems are being used by Hammerson shopping centres, including at Brent Cross, north London. We have carried several reports on this subject on our web site: please search for 'Brent Cross Coalition'.

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