Attention Shoppers, Store is Tracking Your Cell

Dustytoad
These have back up batteries that are Inside the phone compartment.

Where did you learn this false information from? Most popular cell phones and tablets over the past several years have been disassembled for the purpose of seeing what memory chips and other components are being used, and for the purpose of DIY repairs. Never has their ever been mention of an extra battery.

On top of that, there isn't even any room in modern smartphones for an extra battery. Smartphones are so thin that everything is literally jam-packed into the thin frame.

Sorry, but I'd like to see a source with images for this particular claim.

Dustytoad
but even without that power source you can track a phone with microwaves from a good distance.

And how do you propose that is possible? Without a battery, the phone becomes not much different than a rock laying on the ground.

victhebutcher
reply to post by nixie_nox

 

i have nothing to hide from them, as well i feel confident in myself in that i really make a conciouss effort to buy just what i need when going into a certain store. in that regaurd i'm not as likely to be dooped........never been much of a window shopper, but i realize im still subject to these tactics just like anyone else. you are right. it IS more invasive, we will all have to be more vigilant, and should be anyway when putting personal info of any kind up on tha webz

My feelings on this subject as well.In fact if they can make some sense of what I get up to when I go shopping,I'd like to know the results as well as it could explain the load of crap I seem to come home with when ever I get back from the supermarket.

reply to post by burdman30ott6

1. Coincidence (which seems too easy considering I've only recieved the coupon after my only visit to a Taco bell)
2. My bank has a deal with various businesses, helping them "get in contact" with customers.
3. Taco Bell "scanned" my cell phone and was able to reverse lookup my contact information to send me the coupons.

More likely...
4. Taco Bell's point of sale system extracted your name from the Track 1 data on your debit card and then associated that with your record in their customer database. Then, that triggered the SMS coupon and the email.

_BoneZ_


On top of that, there isn't even any room in modern smartphones for an extra battery. Smartphones are so thin that everything is literally jam-packed into the thin frame.

Sorry, but I'd like to see a source with images for this particular claim.

Mainly I was talking about the non removable iphone battery. You know what I am talking about. There are rumors about others, but I only referenced a feeling about that.

Dustytoad
but even without that power source you can track a phone with microwaves from a good distance.

"BONEZ"
And how do you propose that is possible? Without a battery, the phone becomes not much different than a rock laying on the ground.

You can connect to any antenna in existence with any frequency small enough for the antenna size. The energy goes down the same channels as any signal would. I know people in the top levels of electrical engineering who work for the military. You don't need an on board power source as long as the signal is strong enough. It has to be a certain frequency.

Most of the phone would be a rock as you call it. The operating system would be unusable, but data on chips would be readable in theory. This is the future of detecting IEDs and the like. They are working on it.

This is the opposite problem of making sidewinders resistant to outside signals.

How do you think that RFIDs on credit cards and passports are read? Or did you think they made nano batteries on those too? You don't need on board power. The range is only limited by the power source and interference.

Line your pocket with copper mesh.

Faraday Cage.

reply to post by Imagewerx


deffinatly get carried away sometimes though

If anyone listens to my conversations, I hope they get paid a lot ,because they have the most boring job on the planet, LOL Being stuck at home, for health issues, Im sure my friends and I conversations would make someone else want to shoot themselves in the head out of pure boredom LOL

reply to post by Dustytoad

RFIDs,car immobiliser transponder chips,Datatags etc can be read without physical contact because they're a passive device (they don't need an external power source) that takes it's power from a burst of RF that gets sent to them by the interrogating device.This induces a VERY small voltage into them that can only generate probably a milliwatt of power or less,and for this reason they can only transmit over very short distances (5-6 inches at the most) no matter how much power you fire at them.
Oh and the so called "hidden" second battery in iPhones etc is for memory backup and is of too low a voltage to actually power the device.

nixie_nox
reply to post by desertguy

 

I wonder if airplane mode is sufficient enough to block them?

I wonder what most humans who were born before 1980 would do ?

Oh,I know,not worry about it. And not worry about the latest cell phone.

who cares.

They can already do this manually by watching and wouldn't it be easier to just put chips in to the trolleys and baskets if available?

desertguy
reply to post by nixie_nox

 

I guess I will start shutting my phone off or leave it in the car from now on when im shopping.

exactly what i do more often than not. i long for a time when my phone wasn't surgically implanted on me. when someone could call and i wasn't home they should check another time and so forth. if it weren't for needing mine for work, (self employed) it would sit at home, where my land line used to be.

amatrine
If anyone listens to my conversations, I hope they get paid a lot ,because they have the most boring job on the planet, LOL Being stuck at home, for health issues, Im sure my friends and I conversations would make someone else want to shoot themselves in the head out of pure boredom LOL

Makes me think of a joke I heard the other day.

"The president assures me that the NSA isn't listening in on the conversation between me and my wife. Well, that makes two of us."

XD

reply to post by aivlas


an electronic eye fixed to the shopping cart. no sorry, it won't do, we crazy people talk to ourselves and don't need everyone in on the conversation

Dustytoad

nixie_nox
reply to post by desertguy

 

I wonder if airplane mode is sufficient enough to block them?

If it's a wifi thing then it should be... That's what stores would use to track you because that's what they use for all the registers and everything.. Soon if not already all the items will be tracked like radar flowing around the store.

LOL. Yeah right. I've worked retail before. Those companies are CHEAP. They still use dial-up and dsl connections for business lines and machines. They aren't about to fork out the millions to have their stores outfitted with gps equipment, let alone pay for the manhours of attaching the equipment to the items in the store.

At most you have those magnetic-ink filled tags that beep if you walk through the detectors at the door. If you're concerned about some nefarious shoe store tracking you around their shop, then turn your network off on your phone before you walk into the place.

If you aren't connected to any networks, no networks can force a connection to you, besides your carrier. I highly doubt your cellphone provider is in cohorts with your local clothing store to try to track you for information. You willingly give all your info to your cell provider, so what would they get out of the deal? Nothing.

nixie_nox
With all the uproar over the NSA, my only response when people bring up the topic is: "NSA nothing, you should see what corporations are doing."

Attention Shoppers-NYT

Nordstrom’s experiment is part of a movement by retailers to gather data about in-store shoppers’ behavior and moods, using video surveillance and signals from their cellphones and apps to learn information as varied as their sex, how many minutes they spend in the candy aisle and how long they look at merchandise before buying it.

All sorts of retailers — including national chains, like Family Dollar, Cabela’s and Mothercare, a British company, and specialty stores like Benetton and Warby Parker — are testing these technologies and using them to decide on matters like changing store layouts and offering customized coupons.

While the stores are using this information for promotion, and claim that it isn't any different than how you are tracked with your online shopping, it IS more invasive.

No matter where I shop online, they can't tell my emotions, what I look like, and I can choose, for the most part, what I look at.

But an even more serious question, what is to stop these stores from selling information?

I can imagine someone getting a letter saying " Dear Nixie Nox, we value you as a loyal insurance consumer for 15 years, but since you were seen buying 3 bottles of wine last week, we consider you a risk and must raise your premiums."

Cameras have become so sophisticated, with sharper lenses and data-processing, that companies can analyze what shoppers are looking at, and even what their mood is.

I don't have a smart phone. I might not get one, considering how much they are being used against the owner.

Funny you should raise this - A friend of mine actually managed part of a company that work on behalf of companies like tesco's to track customer movements throughout stores. They track where they go, what they look at, if they pick up the item, if they place the item in a basket/trolley and when you exit the store. It is quite invasive but the interest in it is really picking up. The companies supply video footage to the tracker company and they do the rest & give them the results. It will probably be the norm in the next 5-10 years.