Have you and your smartphone been stalked?

[Commentary] In the summer of 2013, retailer Nordstrom told the New York Times it had experimented with tracking customer's movements using Wi-Fi signals from their smartphones. While the signals are invisible, Nordstrom put up a sign telling customers they were being tracked. Customers complained and Nordstrom ended the experiment. While consumers have become accustomed to being tacked online, they are creeped out -- or just plain worried -- when the practice is extended into physical space.

With the smartphone’s MAC address, all sorts of public and commercial information about the customer can be accessed to build a profile, including, for instance, income, zip code, and other online and offline nuggets. A middle-aged middle school principal may resent being through the lingerie department, but he will be even more uncomfortable to discover that his retail foray is being collated with his record of online browsing, his Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn presence on the social web, and so on. A 2012 survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers found 87% of consumers want to control what information they share. They don't really object to being tracked, but they do object strongly to being stalked. They don't want to be shadowed by a creep. But they welcome the beneficent presence of a concierge.