Attention Shoppers: You are being tracked

Here is an article in New York Times that talks about how stores are tracking customers using cameras and customers' own mobile phones: Attention, Shoppers: Store Is Tracking Your Cell.

None of them are totally new to picture- each of those techniques have been growing on quite regularly.Techniques which are covered in the article include:

- When customers' phones try to connect to wifi networks, customers can be counted.

- Phones publish their unique ID when they try to connect to routers. This can be used to count repeat customers and frequency of their visits.

- Wifi networks can be used to position customers within stores with about 10 feet accuracy.

- Cameras and stereo cameras are being used to identify cusomer demography - adults, children gender etc.

- Some companies use video footage to generate heat maps - where customers spend time etc.

- Cameras are being used to see where customers are looking at and even mood using facial recognition

- If customers are willing and sign-up, all this information is used to personalize recommendations as well as sending relevant coupons.