Retailers are watching you.
In the age of smartphones, online shopping and data, it has become easier than ever for companies to monitor the consumers who give them business.
Retailers employ all sorts of clever tactics from using facial recognition devices to devising customer loyalty programs and cell phone signal trackers.
Then they use the collected data to determine where to place products in the store and how and where to advertise.
While many consumers are unassuming and unaware, a variety of groups are protesting the data collection as an invasion of privacy.
"Trackers" that follow you through the store.
Consumer behavior expert Paco Underhill reveals in his classic book"Why We Buy" that most national retailers hire "trackers," anthropologists that observe consumer behavior. The "trackers" go incognito and are trained as to not draw attention to themselves.
Picking up your cell phone signal.
Last Black Friday, some U.S. malls rolled out technology that tracked consumers' cell phone signals in stores to track their paths through the mall. This technology is already popular in Europe and Australia.
Facial recognition technology to track your age and gender.
Retailers are using facial recognition technology to find out more about their core customer. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the technology isn't being used to track individual consumers. Instead, it's used to find out demographic information.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider