Stores and national chains are tracking your cell to see what you look at, how long you look at it, when you come in, and even what sex you are.
The other day I was Googling a some shoes and afterwards, every website's ads I visited showed me Nordstrom's picture of them. I got so tired of it I ended up deleting all my cookies. Online stores can track what we look at, giving them an advantage over brick and mortar retailers - so should we be pissed?
From the article:
RetailNext, based in San Jose, Calif., adds data from shoppers’ smartphones to deduce even more specific patterns. If a shopper’s phone is set to look for Wi-Fi networks, a store that offers Wi-Fi can pinpoint where the shopper is in the store, within a 10-foot radius, even if the shopper does not connect to the network, said Tim Callan, RetailNext’s chief marketing officer.
The store can also recognize returning shoppers, because mobile devices send unique identification codes when they search for networks. That means stores can now tell how repeat customers behave and the average time between visits.
My question is ~ do they also track our cell's contacts and calls? How much are we giving away?