BBC News reported yesterday that the Gunwharf Quays shopping centre in Portsmouth is tracking the movement of people from the location of mobile phones within the site. The report (video) says that 4 aerials have been erected on the site which track whereabouts a phone will be at any time.

The developer of the technology was adamant in the report that no personal information can be collected, they can’t even tell the phone number of the phone that is being tracked. Gunwharf is simply using the information for shopping trend analysis in an attempt to improve facilities for visitors.

Personally I have no problem with this as I have nothing to hide, but, having been to Gunwharf regularly since it opened I have never seen a sign telling me that this information is being collected during my visit. It would have been nice to know.

Of course, when you’re attending a major event such as the Gunwharf Quays Italian Job Mini Event, the statistics will be all screwed up. The owners of the vehicles will wander around at random, visiting places within the centre with no particular direction.

Hey, perhaps we should organise for a couple of hundred people to visit the shopping centre, each with two or three mobile phones in their pocket and just wander around the centre without going to a single shop, bar, restaurant or other facility. See what that does to their “anonymous” statistics…

This is the glass floor in the Spinnaker Tower at Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth, Hampshire. Taken in January of 2007.