MALLS BACK DOWN ON TRACKING SHOPPERS BY CELL PHONES

We reported earlier that the Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va., launched a survey on Black Friday, tracking shoppers' movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones. The original plan was for those malls to continue the survey through New Year's Day, but after receiving a phone call from Sen. Charles Schumer's office over the weekend, they put the survey on hold.

The technology used antennas set up around the shopping centers to anonymously track shoppers as they moved from store to store. Customers were notified of the survey via small signs, and the only way for them to opt out was to turn their phones off.

In a press conference on Sunday, Sen. Charles Schumer said the malls should have given shoppers the choice to opt-in.
"A shopper's personal cell phone should not be used by a third party as a tracking device by retailers who are seeking to determine holiday shopping patterns," the New York senator said in a statement. "Personal cell phones 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."

While the Cleveland-based mall management company, Forest City Commercial Management confirmed that it tracked shopper data on Black Friday, it said it now plans to pursue an easier opt-out option for consumers.
"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," the company said. "We look forward to meeting with the senator and his staff, together with the system developer, to further explore his concerns."

MALLS TRACKING CUSTOMERS CELL PHONES THIS BLACK FRIDAY

Starting on Black Friday and running through New Year's Day, two U.S. malls -- Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. -- will track guests' movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones.
While the data that's collected is anonymous, it can follow shoppers' paths from store to store.

The goal is for stores to answer questions like: How many Nordstrom shoppers also stop at Starbucks? How long do most customers linger in Victoria's Secret? Are there unpopular spots in the mall that aren't being visited?
While U.S. malls have long tracked how crowds move throughout their stores, this is the first time they've used cell phones.
But obtaining that information comes with privacy concerns.

The management company of both malls, Forest City Commercial Management, says personal data is not being tracked.
"We won't be looking at singular shoppers," said Stephanie Shriver-Engdahl, vice president of digital strategy for Forest City. "The system monitors patterns of movement. We can see, like migrating birds, where people are going to."

FREE SHOPPING APP CONNECTS YOU WITH OVER 650 CATALOGS

With the up tick in online shopping and the decline of traditional catalog shopping, Catalogs.com has created a new, free iPad app that incorporates over 650 catalogs into one shopping area.  The app is in a magazine style for both online and traditional brick and mortar stores including MacConnection, Home Depot, Little Tykes and Spiegel.  As Richard Linevsky, co-founder of Catalogs.com, says "it’s like having a coffee table full of catalogs on the iPad."

The app allows users to turn pages just like a regular paper catalog, zoom in on products for details, tap to buy the product and create wish lists from multiple catalogs in one place. [TechCrunch]

SHOPPING APP FOR APPS

The AppShopper is an app that hunts down bargains in Apple's App Store.  The application lets the users setup filters and notifications that help make Apple's App Store a little more user friendly and manageable.  You can set filters for free games for example and only see those that meet that criteria.  The best thing though is it allows you to find all the apps that have had price changes, at a glance.

The AppShopper is a free app and is available for download now from iTunes. [iTunes, Gizmodo]