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Rubbish bins tracking pedestrians as they walk along the street sounds like something from a sci-fi movie. But recently it emerged that recycling and rubbish bins installed along a central London street were monitoring pedestrians through millions of smartphones.However, the City of London ordered the company Renew to stop collecting data following a public outcry about the invasion of privacy......Australia's Westfield already use this technology to track smartphones at three shopping centres. ''Westfield is capable of using the MAC identifier system in its centres, but cannot collect any data other than to know smart phones are moving within,'' a company spokeswoman said.Westfield offers free internet access in three centres across Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Visitors can opt into the service, but Westfield can also monitor the movements of smartphones even without the owners logging in to its Wi-Fi network.Its privacy policy states that it collects information ''where devices are able to connect to, or are identifiable by, in-centre infrastructure'' and that it uses ''this information so that we can tell … where shoppers spend most of their time''.Representatives for other shopping centre owners said they did not use MAC or Wi-Fi tracking in their centres. But QIC does use thermal tracking and cameras to monitor customer numbers, a spokeswoman confirmed.
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Topic: Tracked from the moment you wake (Read 716 times)
