Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] UK shops track customers via GNU Radiomonitoring their mobile phones!

[Jeff Brower]

John-

> Danny O'Brien of EFF pointed out this profile of Toby Oliver of Path
> Intelligence, which uses GNU Radio to build phone-monitoring
> networks for shops:
> 
>   http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9734052-16.html
> 
>   Toby Oliver, CEO of Path Intelligence, is based in Portsmouth,
>   England, where he and his wife, Sharon, have built a hugely
>   interesting (and innovative) product on top of the GNU Radio open
>   source project, key parts of which they've helped to fund.

Which parts of GNU radio were funded and/or developed by Mr. Oliver and his 
wife?

-Jeff

> The social impact is covered here:
> 
>   http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3945496.ece
> 
>   (text below.)
> 
> and here:
> 
>   
> http://p10.hostingprod.com/@spyblog.org.uk/blog/2008/05/path-intelligence-phorm-for-shopping-centres.html
> 
>   (See the comments for pointers to patents and such.)
> 
>   
> http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/14/path-intelligence-monitors-foot-traffic-in-retail-stores-by-pinging-peoples-phones/
> 
> Of course, though they say this data "isn't correlated" with any other
> info, all it would take is recording what image is taken by the
> security cameras when an identifiable mobile phone "walks by".  And
> with what charge card was used at the cash register when that same
> phone is standing in front of it.  And the license plate number (and
> the RFID's in the tires) of the car that's going past when this mobile
> phone passes your reader.  Then you have the user's picture, name,
> credit card info, car registration, and maybe tyre RFIDs; all without
> the help of the mobile operator.
> 
> Removing the battery from your mobile phone is going to get a lot more
> popular, I expect.  But at least we'll have free software tools for
> monitoring what info it's leaking about you when the battery is in.
> (How much of the Path Intelligence modules are in the main GR repository?)
> 
>         John
> 
> Shops track customers via mobile phone
> May 16, 2008
> 
> Customers in shopping centres are having their every move tracked
> by a new type of surveillance that listens in on the whisperings of
> their mobile phones.
> 
> The technology can tell when people enter a shopping centre, what
> stores they visit, how long they remain there, and what route they
> take as they walked around.
> 
> The device cannot access personal details about a person?s identity
> or contacts, but privacy campaigners expressed concern about
> potential intrusion should the data fall into the wrong hands.
> 
> The surveillance mechanism works by monitoring the signals produced
> by mobile handsets and then locating the phone by triangulation ?
> measuring the phone?s distance from three receivers.
> 
> It has already been installed in two shopping centres, including
> Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth, and three more centres will begin using
> it next month, Times Online has learnt.
> 
> The company that makes the dishes, which measure 30cm (12 inches)
> square and are placed on walls around the centre, said that they
> were useful to centres that wanted to learn more about the way their
> customers used the store.
> 
> A shopping mall could, for example, find out that 10,000 people were
> still in the store at 6pm, helping to make a case for longer opening
> hours, or that a majority of customers who visited Gap also went to
> Next, which could useful for marketing purposes.
> 
> In the case of Gunwharf Quays, managers were surprised to discover
> that an unusually high percentage of visitors were German - the
> receivers can tell in which country each phone is registered - which
> led to the management translating the instructions in the car park.
> 
> The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) expressed cautious
> approval of the technology, which does not identify the owner of the
> phone but rather the handset's IMEI code - a unique number given to
> every device so that the network can recognise it.
> 
> But an ICO spokesman said, "we would be very worried if this
> technology was used in connection with other systems that contain
> personal information, if the intention was to provide more detailed
> profiles about identifiable individuals and their shopping habits.?
> 
> Only the phone network can match a handset's IMEI number to the
> personal details of a customer.
> 
> Path Intelligence, the Portsmouth-based company which developed
> the technology, said its equipment was just a tool for market
> research. "There's absolutely no way we can link the information we
> gather back to the individual,? a spokeswoman said. ?There's nothing
> personal in the data."
> 
> Liberty, the campaign group, said that although the data do not
> meet the legal definition of ?personal information?, it "had the
> potential" to identify particular individuals' shopping habits by
> referencing information held by the phone networks.
> 
> The receivers together cost about �20,000 to rent per month. About 20
> the units, which are unobtrusive, cream-coloured boxes about the size
> of a satellite dish, would be needed to cover the Bluewater shopping
> centre.
> 
> Bluewater, in Kent, said it had no plans to deploy the equipment. A
> spokesman for Gunwharf Quays was not available for comment.
> 
> Owners of large buildings currently have to rely on manual surveys
> to find out how customers use the space, which can be relevant to
> questions of design such as where the toilets should be located or
> which stores should be placed next to one another.
> 
> Other types of wireless technology, such as wi-fi and Bluetooth, can
> be used to locate devices, but the regular phone network signal is
> preferable because it is much more powerful and fewer receivers are
> needed to monitor a given area.
> 
> Phone networks have long been capable of gauging the rough location
> of a handset using three phone masts, but the margin error can be as
> great as 2km. The process is also less efficient when the phone is
> indoors. Path Intelligence's technology can tell where a phone is to
> "within a couple of metres."
> 
> "You're basically going to know that that person has been in
> Starbucks," Toby Oliver, the company's chief technology officer,
> said.
> 
> Even when the owner is not using it, a mobile phone makes contact
> with the network every couple of minutes, which is enough for the
> receivers to get a reading on its position.
> 
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