Add retailers² to the list of groups tracking the movements and habits of unsuspecting people.

 

In an effort to gain the competitive advantage websites have had for years, stores have begun tracking shoppers' movements and moods through their cell phones and with special cameras that can recognize facial expressions – without shoppers' consent（同意）. Recent reports of this activity have raised privacy concerns despite repeated assurances from merchants that no personal information is collected from devices.

 

Some of the stores using the tracking technology are Benetton, Cabelas, Family Dollar, Mothercare and Warby Parker according to reports. Nordstrom used the technology last autumn in a pilot, but discontinued the program after public outcry.

 

Nordstrom stores posted signs telling customers about the tracking program, but shoppers interviewed by a Denver TV station were unaware³ of it since the signs were placed in hard to notice locations, near an entrance at floor level in one instance.

 

One shopper told the station it was 'scary' and another called it an invasion of her privacy.

 

Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack were able to track shopper behaviors via a smartphone’s wifi signal, which allowed the retailer¹ to analyse how long a shopper spent in a particular area and to track shopper movements, as well as how many people that walked past the store decided⁴ to walk in, according to a report by the New York Times.

 

Nordstrom stopped the pilot in May after customer complaints became too numerous, according to reports.

 

Stores want this information because they are at a disadvantage to online retailers like Amazon that are able to track shopper movements around the sites through the use of cookies, allowing the online competitors to recommend additional products and show what other people who bought one thing also bought.

 

'Brick-and-mortar stores have been disadvantaged compared with online retailers, which get people's digital crumbs⁵,' Guido Jouret, head of technology firm Cisco's emerging technologies group, told the Times.

 

Cisco is one of a number of vendors⁶ that provide cameras to stores looking to track how long people spend in a given department, which can tell them how to best organize stores or streamline⁷ individual aisles⁸.

 

RetailNext, according to the Times, combines the power of video with the trail of cookie crumbs left behind by cell phones. Their technology is able to not only track shopper movements, but also identify repeat customers – without a phone even connecting to store's WiFi network. This is because phones looking for WiFi networks still send a unique identifier even if they don’t connect to a specific network.

 

Stores are also using cameras to analyze⁹ facial expressions and moods.

 

Synqera, based in Russia, uses facial recognition at store checkouts¹⁰ to tailor marketing¹¹ based on gender¹², age and mood, according to the Times.

 

'If you are an angry man of 30, and it is Friday evening, it may offer you a bottle of whiskey,' Ekaterina Savchenko told the paper.

 

Other companies allow people to opt-in and provide some basic personal information that pinpoints¹³ them in a store department and can send them coupons¹⁵ aimed at encouraging a purchase, something at least one shopper who spoke¹⁶ to the Times liked.

 

'I would just love it if a coupon¹⁴（息票，赠券） pops up on my phone,' Linda Vertlieb said.

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