Your smartphone is the best tracking tool a marketer could ask for.
London-based marketing firm Renew has created Presence Orb, a trash can-based tracking system that collects data about the smartphones that pass by. Over the course of a week in London, Renew says, it captured info about over 4,000,000 devices, 530,000 of which were unique.
By tracking the devices, Presence Orb can measure which stores people go to, how many people who visit are new customers, and even how fast they're walking. For retailers, the data could offer an unparalleled look at where people go and, potentially, what they buy when they get there.
If that sounds familiar, it's because Renew's system is essentially a meatspace version of the tracking cookie, which online marketers use to serve web users targeted ads. And that's exactly the point, as Renew explicitly calls the Presence ORB the tracking cookie for the physical world.
While tracking technologies are nothing new at this point, what's particularly concerning about the Presence Orb is just how misleading and borderline creepy the marketing video for the technology is. When Renew says, "Presence Orb recognizes Jack's phone whenever Jack enters into a Presence Orb-enabled location," what it really means is that the technology stalks Jack and learns things about him based on where he goes.
What's also telling is that in the marketing video, Renew's hypothetical Jack is blissfully unaware that all of this is going on. He's a just guy with a smartphone and some expendable income. (Unsurprisingly, there's no opt-in process for any of this.)
It's clear from both Presence Orb and other in-store tracking systems that advances in technology are giving marketers and retailers unprecedented ways to monitor people and sell them products. But as we've pointed out before, technology also offers a way out of the tracking: You can foil signal-sniffing tech like Presence Orb using signal-blocking smartphone cases like Off Pocket.
What's also worth noting about the technology is that London officials apparently weren't aware the data collection was going on. Here's a statement the City of London Corporation sent to The Guardian.
“We have already asked the firm concerned to stop this data collection immediately. We have also taken the issue to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Irrespective of what’s technically possible, anything that happens like this on the streets needs to be done carefully, with the backing of an informed public.”
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Presence ORB - Renew Technologies (R&D) from Renew on Vimeo.