Passive tracking: Watching you whether you like it or not
So, if you don’t want businesses to get to know you, you can just not sign up for their free wifi and not download their mobile apps, right? Wrong. Retailers also use wifi and Bluetooth sensors to track your mobile device without you ever having signed in or asking for your permission to do so. This is called “passive tracking.”
Anything that connects to the internet has a Media Access Control (MAC) address, which is essentially a serial number unique to the device that can’t be changed. Store sensors, depending on where they are, can pick up your MAC address and use that to track your device’s location and movements.
Most likely, the business isn’t doing this to spy on you, the individual. Passive tracking is about getting aggregate data, like which areas of the store are more popular than others, the busiest times of day in a location, or even how many people pass by the store without stepping inside.
And, again, online stores behave similarly. It just might feel more invasive when your movements in the physical world are being tracked through a device in your pocket.
Going off the retail grid
It’s important to keep in mind that just because retailers can track you doesn’t mean they are.
After reading a wifi portal or app’s terms and conditions and privacy policy, you may well think that the benefits of active tracking outweigh the downsides. If you don’t, opting out of active tracking is pretty simple: Don’t opt in. Don’t use the store’s wifi and don’t download and install its app.
Opting out of passive tracking is more complicated. The good news is that device manufacturers and even businesses have taken measures to preserve your privacy. Some retailers, like Nordstrom, stopped passive tracking after public outcry when the practice came to light.
Turning your wifi and Bluetooth off is the best way to avoid retailer tracking, but it doesn’t mean you aren’t being tracked by someone else. That leaves us with the only guaranteed way to truly opt out of being tracked through your mobile device: turn it off. For most of us, that’s not a realistic option. What helps is knowing what you can control — and using that information to think twice before you log on to a free wifi network or download yet another app.
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