Shopping centre uses mobile phone data to "monitor visitor levels"

[Chris Edwards]

On Mon, 22 Aug 2011, Tony Naggs wrote:

| When a phone registers with a network it gets a temporary device ids (a
| TIMSI if I remember correctly), and these are recorded so the the Mall
| owners can gather statistics on the routes people take through the mall, how
| long they spend in stores, at the food court, etc.

Yep.  This is old news, and as I understand it, only works for 2G (GSM).  
Anyone using 3G (UMTS) can't be tracked so easily.

OK, you may not get a 3G signal in all the places you'd like, but "malls" are 
often pretty well covered...