Posted on 01/14/2014 7:09:37 AM PST by Second Amendment First
Fan Zhang, the owner of Happy Child, a trendy Asian restaurant in downtown Toronto, knows that 170 of his customers went clubbing in November. He knows that 250 went to the gym that month, and that 216 came in from Yorkville, an upscale neighborhood.
And he gleans this information without his customers' knowledge, or ever asking them a single question.
Mr. Zhang is a client of Turnstyle Solutions Inc., a year-old local company that has placed sensors in about 200 businesses within a 0.7 mile radius in downtown Toronto to track shoppers as they move in the city.
The sensors, each about the size of a deck of cards, follow signals emitted from Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones. That allows them to create portraits of roughly 2 million people's habits as they have gone about their daily lives, traveling from yoga studios to restaurants, to coffee shops, sports stadiums, hotels, and nightclubs.
"Instead of offering a general promotion that may or may not hit a nerve, we can promote specifically to the customer's taste," says Mr. Zhang. He recently emblazoned workout tank-tops with his restaurant's logo, based on the data about his customers' gym visits.
Turnstyle is at the forefront of a movement to track consumers who are continuously broadcasting their location from phones. Other startups, such as San Francisco-based Euclid Analytics Inc., use sensors to analyze foot-traffic patterns, largely within an individual retailer's properties to glean insight about customer behavior.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
How much longer will it be until thr NSA sells our data to advertisers to fund the federal goobermint?
My cheapie flip fon still works great for its intended purpose. ‘Ok honey, I’m on my way home, do we need anything from the store?’.
That’s about it.
No, you can't see YOUR need for a smart phone.
You have no clue what MY needs are.
Beyond needs I have wants as I enjoy the features plus requirements of my job also dictate I have a smart phone.
I’d like to see the science behind the 3 dog limit. What’s happening to Houston? They used to have no zoning laws, now they do. Where will this lead?
I think you are supposed to have them in multiples of three. This is why I have six.
You are going to have to send out pics after you pick him up!
Hairy could get along with any other dog but the rest of the crew would be p^ssed! It's all about the treats, ya know! NO SHARE! :)
i just submitted a request for that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.