In the UK: Tracking technology created by Path Technologies is being used to watch how shoppers mobe around shopping malls, according to The Register.
By installing their receivers in the shopping centre, Path are able to pick up comms between handsets and base stations, enabling location-fix to within a couple of metres. There are apparently two UK shopping centres using the tech, with three more to come soon!
The point of the tech, as aforementioned, is to find out more about the rituals of shoppers – something that has only previously been possible with fairly manual surveying methods. As most of the GSM comms are encrypted, and the network uses a TMSI (Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity) rather than sending the IMSI, it is said to be anonymous. Path Intelligence is also keen to state all their tracking is anonymised, and that they can’t establish who you really are…
Security concerns aside for a moment, the tech does have a lot of interesting applications – whether it is shopping, traffic, or trade shows.
For the moment Path Intelligence only does 2G GSM, though supporting CDMA wouldn’t be too difficult. 3G GSM is slightly more secure but still uses a TMSI, so those on a 3G network are unlikely to remain untracked for long.
Whether shoppers will (a) know and (b) be happy with being tracked remains to be seen – I guess whether you need to inform them they are being monitored might be a legal grey area – however, as The Register neatly points out, if you match CCTV footage to location info, then you would potentially have a good set of data about people – just like they do on 24! 🙂
[Via: The Register]