Your Cell Phone May Be Tracked

The next time you hit the local mall, you might be followed by some folks who are interested in the way you shop. They might follow along as you move from store to store, making notes as you stop for 5 minutes for a coffee and then spend 30 minutes shopping for electronics. It turns out, this information is extremely valuable to the folks who operate malls and to the stores that rent space within them.

This is all possible since you are carrying around your personal "homing" device. Its called a cell phone. Although you might not realize it, your cell phone is sending out signals as long as it is turned on. Some companies are developing new tools and technology to allow their customers to track cell phone signals throughout any physical space, such as a mall. Using this technology, they can track many different signals at once and build detailed profiles of traffic. Pretty nifty stuff.

Some people may find this tracking an invasion of their privacy. There are certainly a variety of legal issues involved in tracking phone signals to individual users without their consent. Others may think its pretty cool and only serves to make their shopping experience better. I'll let you make the call. The purpose of this tip is to make sure you are aware that this can be happening.

Security Tip: Be aware that your cell phone may be used to track your location and behavior in the physical world. You don't even have to be making a call. If you don't want to contribute to the collective data gathering - you can always turn off your phone!