If you have ever waved off a clipboard-wielding survey-taker at the mall, you understand the inherent data-collection challenges faced by shopping center landlords. After all, who has the time to undergo some demographer’s version of the third degree? Thanks to the rapid rise of geo-location technology, however, more mall owners and retailers have been tinkering with data-collection techniques that promise to let customers go about their business undisturbed — at least on the surface.
The idea is to quietly gather shoppers’ location data — for example, where they went in the mall and how long they spent at each location — by tracking the automatic transmissions of their cell phones.
