International Law

Path Intelligence - Phorm for shopping centres ?

Just in case you thought that Phorm was the only threat to your privacy, here is an example of similar "no opt out" snooping technology being installed in the infrastructure of a public space, a shopping centre, which secretly snoops on individuals, without their informed prior consent, in the hope that advertising and sales revenues can be maximised.

There is no way, short of switching off your mobile phone, of opting out or avoiding this snooping scheme.

The Times has a story:

From Times Online May 16, 2008

Shops secretly track customers via mobile phone

Signals given off by phones allow shopping centres to monitor how long people stay and which stores they visit

Jonathan Richards, San Francisco

Customers in shopping centres are having their every move tracked by a new type of surveillance that listens in on the whisperings of their mobile phones.

The technology can tell when people enter a shopping centre, what stores they visit, how long they remain there, and what route they take as they walked around.

All the same issues about the lack of informed, prior consent of members of the public who have been, or are now being snooped on in secret, for the commercial benefit of others, apply to Path Intelligence Ltd. (technology provider), the shopping centres (public infrastructure providers), and retailers (profit makers), just as they do to Phorm (technology provider), the Internet Service Providers (public infrastructure providers) and web advertisers (profit makers).

If you look at the demonstration (needs Flash) of the interactive mapping and reporting software which Path Intelligence seem to have developed for this snooping technology, you will see that it could also be easily applied to display and analyse inputs from other "spy on the public without their knowledge or consent" technologies which exploit things which large numbers of people might be carrying on their persons, like BlueTooth or unkilled consumer product RFID tags, or "Biometric" Passports or ID Cards.

It should be relatively simple to link such a system to the existing CCTV surveillance camera networks which modern shopping centres all employ.

Sharon Biggar, the company's chief operating officer, said that one of the stores which had already deployed the receivers did not want its name revealed for fear of alarming its customers.

Who is this snooping retailer ? Why should we not boycott them ?

Full post as published by Spy Blog on May 18, 2008 (boomark / email).