Anybody who shops at online stores like Amazon.com knows that those merchants track customers, what they look at, what they buy and how long they spend on the site. Perhaps it's not all that surprising that traditional retailers — with little or no notice — have started tracking shoppers in stores, using security cameras and devices that can monitor the location of customer cellphones.
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In this era of big data and cheap monitoring equipment and software, national chains like Family Dollar and even neighborhood cafes are using tracking technologies to offer coupons to customers and gather information about their in-store shopping habits, according to a recent article in The Times. Retailers say they need to monitor customers so they can help them find what they want. If you linger in the men's formal wear section, for instance, a store might send you a coupon that offers you a free shirt with the purchase of a new suit.
Retailers also argue that they collect no more, and often a lot less, information about their customers than Web merchants do. The Federal Trade Commission says it has not found evidence that retailers are using facial recognition technology that could allow them to identify and build profiles of customers. But what's disturbing about these tracking methods is that stores are mostly doing so without informing their customers.
The technology that allows stores to track shoppers' cellphones, for instance, works even when customers do not log on to the Wi-Fi networks of stores. The only way a cellphone user can avoid being tracked is to turn off the Wi-Fi feature on their phones, which few are likely to do if they are unaware of the monitoring in the first place. While a few retailers like Nordstrom have posted signs telling customers that they were being monitored in this way, many others do not do so. (Nordstrom stopped tracking cellphones in May, partly as a result of complaints from customers.)
If stores want to track their customers, they should tell the public what they are doing and give people the ability to opt out of monitoring. Many shoppers say they are willing to give information about themselves in exchange for special deals and promotions. But some consumers go to physical stores because they want to protect their privacy. Traditional retailers would be smart not to alienate customers by surreptitiously tracking them.
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