Short Pump drops plan to track customers

The owner of Short Pump Town Center said Monday that it has stopped using a system that tracks customer movements through their mobile phones, after U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer raised privacy concerns about the practice.

Short Pump's parent company, Cleveland-based Forest City Commercial Management, said in a statement Monday that it conducted a trial of the Path Intelligence tracking system on Black Friday, as planned.

But the company said it temporarily suspended use of the system so it can work with the developer of the technology to find a way for shoppers to opt out, aside from turning off their phones.

"The trial was successful and we look forward to analyzing the aggregated anonymous data on shopping patterns and flows that was gathered," the company said.

"We have temporarily suspended further trial of the technology while we work with the system developer on possible enhancements, and in deference to concerns raised by Senator Schumer."

Forest City said last week that it would use the mobile tracking system at Short Pump and at another mall it owns in Southern California to gather information on foot traffic and shopping patterns. The company originally had planned to use the system through New Year's Day.

A Forest City spokeswoman said the company had no further comment beyond the statement it released.

The lack of an easier way to opt out was one of the concerns raised by Schumer, D-N.Y., who sent a letter to the developer of the tracking system, the United Kingdom-based company Path Intelligence Ltd., urging it to obtain the consent of shoppers before collecting information on their movements.

Schumer said shoppers should be able to opt out without having to turn off their mobile phones.

"A shopper's personal cellphone should not be used by a third party as a tracking device by retailers who are seeking to determine holiday shopping patterns," Schumer said in a statement released by his office. "Personal cellphones are just that — personal. If retailers want to tap into your phone to see what your shopping patterns are, they can ask you for your permission to do so."

The system, called Footpath Technology, "consists of a small number of monitoring units installed throughout the center. The unit recognizes signals from shoppers' mobile phones and sends the data to be evaluated."

The technology, the company said, does not collect or access any personal information or phone numbers.

Still, some privacy advocates raised concerns about how well the information would be protected, and some local shoppers said last week that they would not shop at the mall as long as it used the tracking technology.

Schumer also sent a letter to the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission requesting an examination of how the new technology fits in with existing consumer privacy regulations.

Although there might be real value in collecting some information about shoppers' movements, the process the company used did not appear transparent enough, said Justin Brookman, director of the consumer privacy project for the Washington-based Center for Democracy & Technology, a nonprofit civil liberties group.

"It is hard to have confidence in that process without really clear representations being made about how they are going to keep it [the data being collected] on a limited basis," he said.

Forest City said the data collected from the phone tracking would be used to identify trends in customer behavior, including shopping patterns and length of stay.

The company said the data also would help it address congestion during the busy holiday shopping period, and to potentially improve operational efficiencies such as maintenance and security.