Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What Secrets Your Phone Is Sharing About You
Wall Street Journal ^ | Jan. 13, 2014 | Elizabeth Dwoskin

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 ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: ispy; phones
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-69 next last
To: fishtank

I use a dumbphone for calls and a smartphone with no service for free wifi, taking pictures, etc. That’s as cheap as it gets, and as minimal an amount of NSA / PD spying as one can “allow”.


21 posted on 01/14/2014 7:56:31 AM PST by jiggyboy (Ten percent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: fishtank; Admin Moderator; All
Your image "http://www.tramsmail.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20/Smartphone-vs-Dumbphone-440x293.jpg" caused several alarms to go off in my firewall.

It shows up as a malicious URL and contains a virus although which one was not specified.

I strongly recommend its removal from this thread.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)

LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

22 posted on 01/14/2014 7:57:49 AM PST by LonePalm (Commander and Chef)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Black Agnes
I have a close friend here who has appointed herself to watch over me since I live alone. My number is on her “family watch” program (the name is something like that), and if I leave my house with my cell phone on, she can go to that program on her computer and see where I am based on communication with my phone to the nearest cell tower. Her kids are on there, too, so she knows the vicinity where her kids are.

I don't care if she knows where I am and it makes her feel better knowing she can find me. Her phone number is on my 911 gadget I have that I can activate anywhere in my house to automatically call 911. It calls 911 and then calls her.

While all that technology is available now, that is a good thing, however, Hussein's “spys” could find me, too. A pox on Hussein.

23 posted on 01/14/2014 8:02:28 AM PST by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Second Amendment First

What about the black boxes in all cars?


24 posted on 01/14/2014 8:03:27 AM PST by capecodder
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Marcella

Criminals could do the same thing.

Probably are and have.


25 posted on 01/14/2014 8:03:33 AM PST by Black Agnes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Black Agnes

“Criminals could do the same thing. Probably are and have.”

99.99 percent of the time, it will show the cell tower closest to my house and am pretty sure it would be the same cell tower the grocery store uses. My range of travel is one street as everything I need is on that street, except for the medical doctor. I don’t know the range of a cell tower or where it is in relation to my house and that one street.


26 posted on 01/14/2014 8:13:10 AM PST by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Second Amendment First
But what if you have a social disease?

Or industrial disease ?


27 posted on 01/14/2014 8:15:21 AM PST by UCANSEE2 (I forgot what my tagline was supposed to say)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Marcella

Perhaps not your travels. Someone who travels out of town or a couple who work a fair distance from home.

Ample time for a B&E and time to get out.


28 posted on 01/14/2014 8:17:44 AM PST by Black Agnes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: al baby

Mine says, “You must make at least one call per month or your service will be discontinued.”


29 posted on 01/14/2014 8:21:49 AM PST by UCANSEE2 (I forgot what my tagline was supposed to say)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: jiggyboy

I’m interested in your setup.

What kind of smartphone works best, cheapest, higher end, does it make a difference?

Do you buy a new one, someones discard?


30 posted on 01/14/2014 8:29:36 AM PST by Cold Heart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Second Amendment First
Smartassed phones, more like .. no thanks.


             

31 posted on 01/14/2014 8:37:50 AM PST by tomkat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tomkat

About a year ago, I took a phone just like that into a store to get my software upgraded.

They laughed at me.


32 posted on 01/14/2014 8:39:00 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Second Amendment First

bump

I don’t know if I care yet


33 posted on 01/14/2014 8:47:51 AM PST by dangerdoc (I don't think you should be forced to make the same decision I did even if I know I'm right.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LonePalm; fishtank
C:\\nunya\Smartphone-vs-Dumbphone-440x293.jpg


             

34 posted on 01/14/2014 8:48:09 AM PST by tomkat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: MrB
They laughed at me

my verbatim reply to such creatures would earn me an FR timeout

35 posted on 01/14/2014 8:51:31 AM PST by tomkat (not that it'd be a first ;-)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: tomkat; Admin Moderator
ZoneAlarm pops up with a warming every time the thread is loaded and won't display the graphic. Even copying the URL into the clipboard produces a warning.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)

LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

36 posted on 01/14/2014 8:54:38 AM PST by LonePalm (Commander and Chef)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: JoeProBono; COUNTrecount; Nowhere Man; FightThePower!; C. Edmund Wright; jacob allen; ...
Image dutifully stolen...

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

37 posted on 01/14/2014 8:56:22 AM PST by null and void (It is as if they all had one head. Too bad they don't all have one neck.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: tomkat

I DID change carriers... but got a smartphone anyway.


38 posted on 01/14/2014 9:01:21 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: LonePalm; Fishtalk; Admin Moderator
oh well, i might be doomed, but am currently hummin' right along w/ several layers of countermeasures and nary a peep from any of 'em .. cheers


here's yer pic, btw :


             

39 posted on 01/14/2014 9:03:17 AM PST by tomkat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Second Amendment First

I don’t “live” on my phone as some folks I know do. I have a Tracphone and use mostly the texting function to stay in touch and it works for emergencies. It will take pics/videos I can send to people ... if I wanted to get on the internet I could, but it eats up my minutes, so I don’t. Since there is no personal info (name/address, etc.) necessary when you buy or use it, someone would have to figure out who you were by other means. Works for me and less than $100/year.


40 posted on 01/14/2014 9:07:39 AM PST by MissMagnolia (You see, truth always resides wherever brave men still have ammunition. I pick truth. (John Ransom))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-69 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson