On Friday nights, Czehoski offers up a rock band; on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, the Queen West restaurant and bar’s upper level is closed off.

Both were decisions made by general manager Jeremy Schertzer after consulting the digital trail his customers sometimes unwittingly leave behind.

“We use it to determine demographic trends,” Schertzer said, adding, “I always thought it was a younger crowd than it is.”

In an effort to cater to a business’s demographic and optimize staffing as well as marketing, more companies are turning towards technology, taking advantage of Wi-Fi signals emitted by smartphones.

The signals, a 12-digit code called a MAC address that’s particular to a specific phone, emit 24/7, regardless of whether a person is actively attempting to connect with Wi-Fi.

Companies like Toronto-based Turnstyle Solutions set up sensors to capture them, allowing them to build anonymous customer profiles based on signal strength. Sometimes they can go a step further, offering options to opt-in when people sign in to a Wi-Fi hot spot enabling them to learn everything (with permission) from age and gender to personal contact information.

But at its most basic level, the data is anonymous and gathered without a person’s explicit permission.

“We don’t know who you are,” said Chris Gilpin, co-founder of Turnstyle Solutions, “but we know this is your fifth time (in a store) this week and on average you spend 20 minutes.”

The data is then presented to Gilpin’s clients — restaurant owners, retailers and others — “in terms of visit duration, peak frequency and walk-by traffic.”

It’s a practice used by a growing number of American companies. Mobile carriers like Sprint, AT&T and Verizon use it to target ads depending on location, while smaller companies use it to pinpoint customers’ movement within shops.

Despite the anonymity, the tracking has raised concern among consumer advocates in both the United States and Canada over privacy laws and in the U.S., Federal regulators are looking into it.

In Canada the practice is fairly new, although the Office of the Privacy Commissioner is keeping a close eye.

Turnstyle Solutions, which started a little over a year ago, is now used in almost 500 locations, many in Canada, and the number of companies expressing interest in the product is on the rise.

“Customer behaviour is changing constantly,” Gilpin said. “It’s smart to be able to constantly monitor your customer behaviour over time so you can adapt and react accordingly.”

While some businesses, like Czehoski, use the technology to constantly track inside their own location, others, like RAC Boutique, used it just for a period of several months to optimize marketing.

“We used it to see what areas of the city our customers (or like-minded people) tended to hang out in,” said Glenna Weddle, president of RAC Boutique, a small clothing store.

But once RAC Boutique narrowed down the best spots to put their pop-up ads, Weddle stopped using the technology, although she’d consider using it again.

“Perhaps for future projects,” she said, “or if we were to expand and lost personal interaction with our customers.”

Helping with ads is just one type of tracking Turnstyle Solutions offers, Gilpin said.

In some instances, customers in a coffee shop or restaurant are informed when they try to connect to the Wi-Fi that they will be tracked and are given the opportunity to opt in — and provide anything from age and gender to more specific information like their name, phone and email — or opt out.

If they opt in, “now the retailer has a medium in which to engage with customers,” Gilpin said, “then you can do things like every fifth time someone enters the store automatically send them a loyalty coupon for 25 per cent off, or the first time you see someone at a restaurant and they leave, send them a customer satisfaction survey.”

But no matter how “anonymous” the gathering is, it still raises concerns, said Geoffrey White, counsel with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.

“Look at companies who may be collecting information about you as you walk down the street with zero knowledge, zero consent and zero understanding that it’s happening . . . you have to ask yourself, where is the relationship there,” White said.

“What gives any company the right to profit off that information? And we say nothing gives them the right.”

It appears to be an opportunity Canadians don’t want businesses to capitalize on, at least not according to reports from 2009 by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and 2010 by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

The Privacy Commissioner’s office found 90 per cent of Canadians are concerned about the impact of new technology and continue to harbour high expectations when it comes to how their personal information is being collected and used.

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The PIAC survey, specifically looking at online behavioural tracking, found nearly 75 per cent of respondents weren’t comfortable with advertising based on tracking.

Currently in Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act doesn’t address the gathering of location data, however it does require companies to explain why they are collecting personal information and to get permission to use it.

It’s an ongoing issue, said Valerie Lawton, senior communications adviser at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

“Technologies involving location data are evolving rapidly and . . . can be extremely useful, but some could raise privacy concerns,” Lawton said via email.

While no complaints have been filed to the office yet, she said the issue is being monitored “closely.”

Still, “the fact that it’s been occurring doesn’t mean it’s legitimate at all,” White said.

At Czehoski, Schertzer is now making plans to put up signs alerting restaurant-goers they’re being tracked, although those that sign on to the Wi-Fi are already alerted. While Turnstyle Solutions offers signs for all locations, Gilpin said it isn’t mandatory they be put up.

“It’s something we provide to all our retailers,” he said, “we encourage them to do so.”

Phone tracking facts:

With files from McClatchy Washington Bureau

* If your phone’s Wi-Fi is on, it’s broadcasting a phone-specific signal, regardless of whether you’re attempting to connect to a network.

* Your personal contact information like name, email and phone number is not broadcasted, unless you specifically agree.

* Businesses like to use the technology to track how long you spend in their store and where and how long you visit, sometimes to help optimize their staffing schedule.

*In Canada, location data tracking is not currently covered by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, although it does require companies to explain why they are collecting personal information and to get permission to use it.