Look Who it Was Random video

American stores use indoor location technology to track customers

1,769 views · Published 2 January 2014 · 0:35 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: News Direct · 2014 · News & Politics

Watch on YouTube

Originally published on November 2, 2013 

Sign up for a free trial of News Direct's animated news graphics at http://newsdirect.nma.com.tw/Reuters.aspx

Major retailers in the United States are rolling out indoor Wi-Fi location tracking technology to keep tabs on their customers. 

According to MIT Technology Review, stores including Home Depot, Nordstrom and American Apparel use technology that tracks Wi-Fi signals emitted from customers' smartphones and log data about their behavioral information. Firms triangulate Wi-Fi signals to determine the position of smartphones and collect information through a unique identifier from smartphones, called a MAC address.  

Information collected from customers' Wi-Fi signals allows retailers to have a better understanding of their customers' preference and arrange their interior layouts accordingly. 

In an interview with MIT Technology Review, Google executive Dan Dodge predicted that indoor location technology will play a bigger role than GPS in the coming years. Google has started incorporating diagrams of the interiors of major shopping malls and museums around the world into its maps. 

While indoor location technology is a relatively new phenomenon, there are already disputes over its usage in public venues. Nordstrom spokesman Colin Johnson told MIT Technology Review that his company ended an experiment with the technology after customers complained.

More from this channel