Online retailers have been collecting personal info to enhance your shopping experience and their sales for more than a decade. Finally with new advances in technology, actual brick and mortar stores are catching up and monitoring shoppers for data, but consumers are less than thrilled about it. A recent New York Times story highlights a recent example where Nordstrom tested out a Wi-Fi tracking system to follow customers' movements around their stores. Clearly posted signs notified shoppers about their new technology, which was tested in 17 of their 248 stores.



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"We're always looking for new things, and for us it was a great opportunity to serve our customers," Tara Darrow, a spokesperson for Nordstrom told Yahoo! Shine. "The ideas was to look at customer foot traffic [and] to look at staffing at different times during the day to make sure we have enough help on the sales floor. That type of thing. We don't do a lot of tracking or surveillance." While some consumers expressed concern for privacy, Darrow said when she explained the usefulness to customers they seemed to understand. "When we were doing the tests, we posted signs and tried to be as transparent as possible and let them know what we were doing," she said. "At this point we're still reviewing the data and we're still looking and what we got from that test."



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Nordstrom may have passed on this Wi-Fi technology for now, but companies like RetailNext are working with brands like American Apparel, Caché, Ulta Beauty, and Verizon Wireless on video surveillance capabilities and Wi-Fi tags, which monitor where employees are in the located in the store throughout the day. The video footage, which often comes from the same surveillance cameras used to prevent theft, can track and count people entering the store and pinpoint their exact locations.



"When we use digital video we can tell where someone is down to a few inches," Tim Callan, RetailNext's chief marketing officer, told Yahoo! Shine. "We can tell if you're standing in front of peanut butter instead of jelly. Wi-Fi gives a range of about 10 feet, so I could say you're in the shoe department, but not where you are in the shoe department. W-Fi tracking is pretty limited." RetailNext has not yet employed the Wi-Fi tracking systems with any retail locations, but the have the technology and are looking for partnerships in the future. Callan says they're very helpful to stores by recognizing return shoppers (the device sends a unique-but-anonymous identification code) and providing information about consumer habits.



If it's so useful for both the consumer and the retailers, then why all the public outcry? "I actually think it's because it's new and it's poorly understood," says Callan. "In the late '90s when this kind of analeptic was prevalent, people were saying, "How do I feel about this? Is this OK? We've had 15 years to figure it out and get comfortable with the fact that tracking us anonymously is not the same as tracking us individually." Many of us will remember a time when we were reluctant to enter a credit card number online, but now there's a natural acceptance that comes with using the internet for online purchases. "A great deal of tracking and analytics have been universally used online for more than a decade," says Callan. "They understand to a fine degree what your behavior is on there. In the physical world it's much harder. In the last few years we've gotten to the point where that's really practical."



The new brick and mortar technology may work in the same way websites have done for years, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful with both. "This is no different that what's already being tracked by your computer," Kimberly Amadeo, Guide to the U.S. Economy for About.com told Yahoo! Shine. "People are just now becoming aware, but companies can get tons of personal info from credit card data. I used to work in data collection for a major corporation, and you'd be shocked what they know about you!" So just what type of info is being shared? Names, addresses, marital status, income, and purchase history is all par for the course. What you never want to share online are your social security number, mother's maiden name, or items that can lead to identity theft.



Amadeo agreed with Callan that most stores and corporations don't care about the individual, nor do they have the time or resources to devote to one specific person. Amadeo says they're more likely to group you with other people in nearby locations or with similar purchasing habits to do trend forecasting and increase their sales. Sharing this info with a store can be convenience and help you find what you're looking for, and as Nordstrom had initially hoped, to ensure there is adequate sales help on the floor.



If you are worried about your privacy, here are some details on how retailers are keeping tabs, and what you can do to stop them.



How stores are tracking you:



When you visit websites. When you click over to an online store most of them will monitor where you are located, what you're clicking on throughout the site and how much time you're spending there. Based on the specific items you've clicked on other similar items can auto-generate online or through emails to you based on your interests. Checking out swimsuits? Don't be surprised to receive product suggestions for other swimsuits, sunglasses, or sunscreen.



When you visit retail stores. Security cameras are overlaid with analytics to track how many people are entering the store each day and linking that with the number of purchases. The same cameras used to deter theft are now being used to track where you are spending time in the store. GPS and Wi-fi signals are used in a similar way to inform retailers about your exact location in the stores, but the accuracy levels are somewhat limited based on the signals to your device. And, of course, not everyone has a smart phone.



Purchasing online. Websites keeps a record of your purchase history and will offer up similar items to you. They will also notify you of promotions for similar items. This is created for your convenience and pleasure, but also so stores can make more money.



What you can do to get off their radar:



Turn off your GPS and Wi-Fi. If you don't want stores to track your activities you should also disable all social media apps like Instagram and Four Square from sharing your location.



Whenever possible, pay with cash. If you make a purchase with a credit card you link you share your name and location an itemized list of everything you've purchased. Paying with only bills will let the store know which items have been purchased on the receipt but they can't be tied to your name.



Don't register on websites, and use guest checkout. If you're not logged in, they can't necessarily match your activity on their site with your name. The less info website keep on file (credit card numbers, billing addresses, etc, the better). If you must use this data to make a purchase, you can always unsubscribe or delete it after the fact, but some companies do store some of this information.



Clear your cookies. Cookies leave a little footprint on the website that sends personalized info back to them. Try clearing them from your computer frequently. It may mean having to re-enter forms, but it's better than storing this data online indefinitely.



Don't answer surveys or warranty cards. These are other ways stores can keep tabs on your purchasing habits.



Be cautious of your activities on platforms like Facebook and Google. "Google saves every bit of information it collects about you--your usage of it, your email sent through it, where you visit--and it's just sitting on their servers, waiting to be hacked or subpoened by the government," says Amadeo. "It can sell information about you to advertisers, and collects even more information if you use Chrome, Gmail, Google calendar, etc." Amadeo warns that Facebook also uses all the info you put on their site (your favorite movies, or your new engagement ring photo, for example) to sell to advertisers. Even if your account is private, this info is public property and will potentially exist somewhere on the web forever.



For more on how stores are tracking your activity, check out the video below.





